


The Sins of Our Father

by YourConsentingMind



Series: The 10th Timeline [2]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Big Brothers, Bonding, Brothers, Bruises, Canon-Typical Violence, Caretaking, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Children, Crash Landing, Disownment, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Exile, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Gen, Height Differences, Hiding, Humor, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Sorry, Injury, Injury Recovery, Isolation, Little Brothers, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Out of Character, Outer Space, Panic, Parallel Universes, Physical Abuse, Pre-Canon, Protective Older Brothers, Recovery, Responsibility, Running Away, Separation Anxiety, Sibling Bonding, Siblings, Teamwork, The Author Regrets Everything, Trauma, what if
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25314760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourConsentingMind/pseuds/YourConsentingMind
Summary: In an Alternate Timeline, Cooler runs away from home with his younger brother Frieza, unable to take their father's manipulation and abuse anymore.Now, the two are alone in a universe where most know their faces and they are wanted, while they try to survive.
Relationships: Cooler & Frieza (Dragon Ball), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Series: The 10th Timeline [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872409
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	1. Runaway

**Author's Note:**

> A few notes: Most events of Dragon Ball and Z happen like normal, with the exception that it is King Cold who destroys Planet Vegeta and rules the empire rather than Frieza.
> 
> The first chapters are set pre-canon - before Planet Vegeta even is destroyed.
> 
> I don't have specific ages for the two, but Cooler and Frieza are still children, with Frieza being just a few years younger than Cooler.
> 
> King Cold is crueler to his children than he is canonically.
> 
> \------------  
> Warnings: There's a lot so every chapter is tagged seperately. There's abuse and manipulation as well as plenty of violence. I will tag more things as the story gets longer.
> 
> \---------  
> This started as a fic I wrote bc i wanted Cooler and Frieza to be able to get along and have a good sibling friendship at least once but then I immediately turned it into angst, im sorry
> 
> Also this is my first time posting a dragon ball fanfic so im sorry if it sucks woops
> 
> Oh yeah and Cooler and Frieza are probably written out of character, as a matter of fact a lot of these characters are probably out of character, sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cooler and Frieza run away from their father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: (Child) Abuse and Injury

Cooler waited patiently outside the room, clenching his fists on his legs, his tail smacking against the ground quietly as he listened to his brother's cries within the chamber, along with the occasional shout from his father. "This is what happens when you disagree with your father, boy!" A loud thud, followed by crying. "You brought this upon yourself." Frieza was begging their father to stop, but he did not listen. A punch, followed by silence.  
  
The older Icejin looked down at the ground, frustrated. He wanted to go in and help his little brother, but he knew he would just make it even worse; he was no match against King Cold.  
  
After what felt like hours, the door opened, and Frieza was thrown in the older brother's lap. "Get your brother out of my sight, Cooler." King Cold stared down at him with anger for a few seconds, before turning away from the two children and walking back into his observation room, door closing behind him.  
  
Cooler picked up his brother, getting up himself, helping him stand. "Come on, let's go," he muttered, taking Frieza piggyback. The two walked back to their room, where Cooler softly let his little brother down, trying to make sure not to hurt him in the process. Frieza started crying nearly immediately after they had entered, asking why their father hated them so much. Cooler shook his head, patching up Frieza's wounds while trying to comfort his younger sibling.  
  
They'd spent nearly all their life like this. Well, Cooler had for longer than Frieza, anyways. The few times their father had paid attention to his children, they either received a beating or had to agree with his every word.  
  
Cooler looked at the injured Frieza with a serious expression. "We're leaving." He couldn't take seeing his brother like this anymore.  
  
"We're leaving?" The younger inquired quietly, tilting his head, wiping away some tears from his eyes.  
  
"Later, when Father is asleep. We go away from here."  
  
"But won't he come after us?"  
  
"Maybe. That's a risk we just have to take."  
  
Frieza looked down at the ground. Then he nodded. Cooler smiled slightly, carefully pulling his brother in for a hug.  
  
"Come on. Let's get something to eat." He said, helping Frieza up.

* * *

  
They snuck out quietly to the area where the ships were stored. Both didn't have much on them - they could only bring as much as they could carry.  
  
The two managed to activate one of them without alerting anyone, quickly storing some food and something to drink in the ship, before preparing to go in themselves.  
  
Suddenly, they heard the door open. Both froze up. They expected the angry voice of their father, but instead, they only heard the softer voice of their nanny.  
  
"You two know what will happen when you leave with that ship. Are you sure you're ready for that?" Berryblue asked, levitating near the entrance.  
  
Both gave a small sigh of relief, happy they were not caught by their father. Cooler turned to look Berryblue in the eyes, nodding. "We know. It will be hard, maybe we won't even make it far, but anything's better than living under our father's foot. ...You won't sell us out, right, Berryblue?" Frieza nodded in response to his brother's answer. Berryblue gave a small chuckle. "Very well then. I can only wish you luck on your travels." She turned to leave, looking back at them one last time. "Your father will not know what happened until he wakes up." She gave the two a small smile before the door closed behind her.  
  
"Am I glad that was not father..." Frieza murmured, looking up at his older brother, who nodded. "Let's go." He responded, getting in first, letting Frieza close the door to the spacecraft behind them.  
  
With that, the two took off, and left their father's homestead for outer space, with nowhere to go, knowing full well the consequences this action will cause.  
  


* * *

  
Frieza stared absently into space, watching the stars they passed by, quietly counting them, while his older brother steered the ship somewhere far away from their father's. They were lucky the craft doesn't require any fuel; similarly to other ships in the empire. It would need to charge planet-side occasionally though, but that is still much better than having to seek out others to do so.  
  
After some time, when they had reached some star systems away from their father's place, Cooler let the spacecraft drift and sat down next to his younger brother, who was watching one of the planets in the star system. It was a lush, blue one, and looked habitable.  
  
“Do you think there's people down there?” Frieza asked, turning his head to his older brother. Cooler contemplated for a moment, before shrugging. “Maybe,” he replied, “it looks habitable at least.” Frieza looked back at the planet.  
  
“I wonder if Father has taken this one.”  
  
The older sibling shook his head. “This is one of the star systems still untouched by Father. Though Berryblue mentioned that he intended to take this nebula soon.”  
  
Frieza's expression turned sour. “Why does he always want to destroy or conquer everything he finds?” he asked his brother, a gloomy look on his face.  
  
Cooler put an arm around Frieza, sighing. “That's just how Father is. He enjoys what he does. Every moment of it.”  
  
The younger pulled his knees up to his chest. “Will we turn out like him too when we get older?” He whimpered for a moment. “I don't want to be like him.”  
  
The older rubbed his brother's head. “We won't – I promise you that, Frieza.” he replied with a smile on his face.  
  
Frieza seemed comforted and a little happier by Cooler's response. He leaned his head against his big brother's shoulder, yawning. “I'm tired,” he complained. The older sibling giggled. “We did get up when we normally slept,” he retorted, unable to contain his own yawn.  
  
“Come on, bro, let's catch some shut-eye.”

* * *

Heavy footsteps approached.  
  
Cooler carefully and slowly turned his head, afraid, knowing exactly who those belonged to.  
  
Red pupils twinkled in the darkness, glaring him down. He didn't need to hear any words, he knew what would happen any moment.  
  
Cooler began running, hoping he could get away. But the second he started moving, he felt a tight and painful grip on his tail, pulling him backwards slowly. The Icejin continued trying to resist, escape from the shadow's wrath, but it was too late. He cried out in fear, begging for him to be spared, for the man to have mercy on him. But it was pointless.  
  
A second hand grabbed him by the neck, harshly lifting him up into the air as he was being brought into the observation chamber.

He was thrown against one of the walls, cowering in the corner with a scared look at the tall Icejin.  
  
“Sorbet, bring me Frieza. I need to teach these boys a lesson.”  
  
Sorbet simply nodded, leaving the room to get Cooler's little brother. King Cold turned his gaze to his child, clearly seething with rage.  
  
Cooler wasn't certain what his brother and him had done wrong. He thought he did everything exactly like Father wanted. What had they done this time? What could possibly prompt such a punishment?  
  
King Cold stepped over to Cooler, picking him up with one hand, smacking him in the face with the other. “Stupid runt, didn't daddy tell you not to mess with his things!?” He dropped the boy and kicked him in the stomach before smacking him away with his tail. “You and your brother cause me nothing but trouble! When will you learn to be obedient and do like daddy tells you to?!”  
  
Cooler held his arms above his head, trying to shield himself, crying.  
  
“Stop that whimpering!” King Cold walked over to him when the door opened, and Sorbet carried the already sobbing Frieza to his majesty. He didn't seem to have any form of remorse on his face. The man simply placed the child in the room and left.  
  
Their father turned away and moved to Frieza, and picked him up with one hand, similarly to Cooler. “Stop crying, you worthless runt,” he demanded, throwing Frieza over into the corner where his older brother was trying to hide. Cooler skittered backwards, pressing himself up against the wall, as King Cold walked to Frieza, putting his foot on the younger's back, pushing down. Cooler thought he heard a bone snap and began screaming in terror, holding his hands in front of his eyes, trying to block out what was happening.  
  
“Frieza!” he wailed over and over again, horrified by what his father was doing to his brother, who was screeching in unison from the pain of the pressure on his back.  
  
And then-

* * *

“Cooler!” Frieza was shaking his older brother, trying to wake him up. He had been screaming in his sleep and crying out his younger sibling's name, worrying him greatly.  
  
The older Icejin shuffled and shot up, gripping the sheets in horror, eyes wide with fear. He was completely out of it, not reacting to his brother's taps and calls, staring absently into the space in front of him, thoughts running through his head wildly. He began weeping, loosening the grip on the blanket and hiding his eyes in his hands, pulling his knees up to his chest and curling up his tail around himself.  
  
There was a deafening tone in his head blending out all the other sounds, he felt dizzy and his head was pounding. He felt like he was choking, like Father's hand was on his neck right at this moment, trying to kill him. It was like the world around him had faded and nothing of what happened was real, that they were back home and at their father's mercy.  
  
Only after a few minutes did Cooler notice his brother trying to get his attention, trying to comfort him, clinging to him. Cooler moved his hands away from his face as reality set in, and he looked down at Frieza, who was crying, just like him. The older Icejin began crying again, wrapping his arms around his younger brother, not wanting to let go.  
  
Frieza looked up to his brother, asking “What's wrong?” through weeps, but Cooler didn't respond, hugging his brother tighter.  
  
He was just glad that his brother was here, safe and sound, and not in pain like in his nightmare.  
  
The two didn't let go for several more minutes.  
  
Frieza asked again, but Cooler only shook his head. “A nightmare,” he muttered, wiping away his own tears.


	2. Two is quite a potent remedy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cooler and Frieza are beginning to adjust to their new life.
> 
> \----------
> 
> chapter title is from the song Hummingbird by Edu

It had been a few days since the two brothers left home. They crossed some nebulae over to get further away from their father's men, despite Frieza's initial protest. The ship has since landed planet-side to recharge. The world the two were trapped on was but a desolate wasteland with little to offer, and the siblings spent most of their time within the ship, as the outside temperature was unbearably hot and sandstorms regularly ravaged the planet.  
  
Frieza floated in the craft, complaining that he felt bored. “How long do we have to stay here?” he whined, turning upright to face his brother properly. The latter spent his time sitting on the floor, eyes closed and hands folded together, meditating. “It's just a few more hours until the ship is back to full fuel,” he replied, not opening his eyes. Frieza pouted at the response, tail wagging unhappily. “And what are you doing?” the younger Icejin inquired, tilting his head. “Meditation. Berryblue said once that it might help with stress.” “Are you feeling stressed, Cooler?” “I have been ever since we left, Frieza.” the older said in a somewhat grumpy tone.  
  
Frieza thought back to four days ago, where Cooler was having a nightmare and started crying. He didn't have the words to describe what happened, but the young Icejin knew his older brother was dealing with a lot of things that happened in the past. Frieza always sought comfort with his sibling when that happened. Cooler didn't do the same in turn though – maybe he didn't want to trouble Frieza with his problems? But he was going to have to, sooner or later. The two were in this together now, alone – only them against the rest of the empire. Frieza softly landed on the floor, sitting down as well, pondering things.  
  
When it got quiet, Cooler opened his eyes to check on his younger brother. He rarely went so silent, so he figured there was something on his brother's mind. “What's wrong?” The older Icejin asked, looking to Frieza, who rested his head on his hands, staring absently at the ground. The question from his brother made him look up, blinking. “I'm just thinking- I always came to you when I needed help or comfort, but you rarely did the same,” he uttered, “but I want you to know it's okay if you want to talk about anything that might be troubling you,”  
  
Cooler seemed surprised at his little brother's remark. Was it that obvious?  
  
He let out a heavy sigh. “I just... I don't want you to have to remember any of that. I don't want you to be reminded of it-” “Cooler, I understand you mean well, but-” “But what?” the older Icejin looked at his sibling, frowning. “But I remember too, even if I don't want to. I also have nightmares about Father. It's okay, you don't need to try and get through this on your own, older brother. We're in this together, remember?” Frieza replied, floating over to his big brother and giving him a tight hug.  
  
Cooler felt both distressed and relieved by the response. He was happy to know that Frieza was willing to listen to his troubles, but he couldn't help but worry at the fact that his little brother also had those horrible nightmares, which were probably even worse for him, considering he was younger and probably had a harder time processing what happened.  
  
He didn't respond, only hugging Frieza back tighter. After a few minutes, he nodded. “Yes,” he answered, “you're right. We're in this together.”  
  


* * *

The ship orbited a light blue planet. It was frozen solid, far away from that system's sun, and freezing cold. The two brothers had tried to make a stop there before and see if they could find any trace of civilization that was not taken by their father – after all, the two originated from a similar planet themselves. But like the planet they had previously been on to allow the spacecraft to charge, this one was nothing but a wasteland, with only ice for miles.  
  
They did manage to get some water from the planet thanks to there being water that wasn't frozen underneath the ice sheet, but this planet didn't offer any more for the two.  
  
Frieza was sleeping, wrapped in only a few thin blankets, while Cooler insisted on staying awake to watch in case anyone would approach them. He gazed at the planet, giving a deep sigh. It had only been a few days since the two had left, but life was already proving to be a lot harder than they anticipated, despite the fact that both knew how troublesome life out here would be. They had yet to find a place where they could get some food, but their supplies were starting to run low, forcing them to do so soon. The Icejin feared it would have to come to interaction with locals, which he was afraid of, regardless if they belonged to the empire or not – those within the empire might recognize them, which could potentially get them killed if they didn't hide themselves and be careful who they talked to; those who were not part of the empire may see them as a threat and try to kill them regardless. Cooler was worried about his little brother, afraid that he might get hurt in a conflict.

The sound of shuffling ripped Cooler out of his thoughts. He looked over to Frieza, who had sat up, watching his brother with a gloomy expression. He got up and walked over to the older Icejin without another word, hugging him. Cooler was confused, but returned the gesture, deciding not to pry yet.  
  
After around 15 minutes, Frieza let go and plopped down next to his older brother. Cooler asked what was wrong.  
  
“I had a nightmare... I had a nightmare that Father killed you-” the younger responded, beginning to sob. Cooler quickly pulled his younger brother into another hug, rubbing his back and quietly hushing him, telling him that it is alright and that that won't happen.  
  
The two sat together in silence for a while, until Frieza stopped crying, wiping away the last of his tears.  
  


* * *

  
Frieza was chewing on some dried meat, which was among the last things they still had. Cooler carefully steered the ship back to the planet they had seen before, the one he believed to be habitable. It had a high chance of locals, so he was quite hopeful they might find something to eat there. To his shock, he saw various Cold Empire vehicles near the planet. It seemed as though their father had already taken the system in the few days they weren't here.  
  
He looked over to his younger brother, who had just finished his meal. “Looks like we'll have to go in with a disguise,” he said, sighing. “Father has taken the planet. There's other ships orbiting, so hopefully we won't be too out of place here.”  
  
Frieza hummed in response as the ship descended. The two entered what seemed like a larger settlement, landing their ship with others of the Cold Empire. Cooler and Frieza wrapped themselves in cloaks with hoods, something Icejin commonly wear, hoping to blend in better.  
  
Surprisingly, they didn't receive any weird looks and most people ignored them.  
  
The natives appeared to be humanoids with hair and furred tails.  
  
Cooler and Frieza managed to find someone who could give them directions to a market. Cooler had secretly taken most of the money his Father gave the two siblings, so he hoped that it may come in handy.  
  
Things went smoothly – almost too smoothly. The two managed to acquire something to eat on the market, enough to last them some time. On the way back to their ship, Cooler noticed a paper hanging, nailed against a wall.  
  
His heart sank when he saw what was on the paper. It was the faces of his brother and him. The bounty read: “Wanted: Dead or Alive” along with pictures of them and a very high bounty. Cooler ripped the bounty paper off and put it into one of the pockets of his cloak, taking Frieza's hand, and quickly rushing back to their ship, though careful to not raise any suspicion.  
  
The two took off without any time wasted and quickly left orbit of the surrounding area.  
  
Frieza was confused at his brother's sudden change in mood. “What's wrong?” he asked, floating beside his brother. Cooler pulled out the paper, handing it to Frieza. “We're officially wanted.” he replied, flying the ship to some star systems away, before setting course to another nebula for the autopilot to bring them to. He got up, looking at the pamphlet with his brother. “We're gonna need to be even more careful now,” the older Icejin murmured, to which his younger brother nodded, a scared look on his face.  
  
“We should make sure to stay out of his empire,” Frieza said, to which Cooler shook his head. “The Empire is nearly 90% of the universe- that's kind of hard to avoid,” he replied, sighing. “We just have to make sure they don't catch us.”  
  
Frieza hummed in response, sitting down and staring out of space.  
  


“Father won't like the people we met,” he suddenly said, looking to his brother over his shoulder. Cooler blinked. “What do you mean by that?” he asked, confused. “He won't like them. They seem quite rebellious and don't like working under someone else.” “How do you know, Frieza?” “I can tell. Many also gave us upset looks when we got to the marketplace. I don't think they like Father, and he won't like them either. He probably thinks they're primitive and like wild animals.” Cooler nodded – his brother's analysis was... very accurate, actually.  
  
“Do you think he might destroy them?” Frieza asked, looking back out into space. “Maybe,” Cooler replied, “I don't know.” Frieza drooped, seeming upset. “I hope he doesn't. They seem like nice people. Just a bit distrusting, but it makes sense with the situation they're in.”  
  


* * *

  
Weeks had passed, and the duo was orbiting a terrestrial world of lush plant life. Unfortunately, it turned out quickly that the planet was inhabitable and the local flora is poisonous. The ship's analysis provided that before the two Icejin landed, luckily.  
  
They had started a routine of returning to backwater planets within the Empire every so often to restock on supplies – these worlds had a lower chance of people recognizing the two brothers. Then, they left to find new planets, preferably unoccupied ones, to keep out of their father's way and occasionally recharge their ship with solar energy. Then they repeated the process.  
  
By this point, they had learned more about the people they had first gone to for supplies; they were called Saiyans, and known as a fierce people who took planets from others for King Cold now. Frieza's assumption was correct – on various backwater planets, they had met Saiyans (among many other species) who expressed a certain distaste for King Cold and his empire.  
  
So far, the two had yet to be found by someone in the Empire, and the siblings were relieved with how smoothly things have worked out so far.  
  
Seeing as their only real defense at this point was themselves, Cooler had started training with his brother a bit – he was very careful to not be too rough, and most of it was simpler things, like Telekinesis and close range combat. Unlike his little brother, Cooler had already been taught some of the more complicated techniques due to him being older – he already knew how to use beams and other long range attacks, though many of them were still wonky to use because he didn't have enough training for them.  
  
He was taught about Ki by some of his mentors (all of whom were part of the Cold Empire and many of which didn't pose much of a challenge, aside from Ginyu and his crew). He had been told that his brother and him were born with a lot of it, and that it is what they use for most long range attacks, but that it may take them some practice to get these powers under proper control when they were still so young. It would come more naturally for them as they got older, something not uncommon among Icejin.  
  
He also learned that it might strain the body and exhaust the user very quickly, which ended up as the main reason why Cooler avoided teaching Frieza anything about it as of right now. Frieza was some years younger than him, and he figured that if he was already struggling with it at his age, his younger brother would have even more trouble with it.  
  
Cooler looked up from his meditation (something he did regularly now) to see his brother having imitated him, probably curious to see if this thing actually helped and what exactly it does. The Icejin seemed to try way too hard to focus though, seeming kind of frustrated. “You have to relax,” Cooler told his younger brother, “being tense makes you unable to do it properly. Focus on the sounds in your surroundings. Try to find your inner balance, Frieza.”  
  
The smaller Icejin didn't relax instantly, but within a minute his posture appeared calmer. Eventually he stopped shutting his eyes tightly, seeming tranquil. Even his tail had stopped moving. Cooler chuckled quietly and went back to his own meditation.  
  
When he opened his eyes to check on his brother, who had been very quiet so far, he noticed the Icejin _floating_ while meditating. Cooler blinked, kind of impressed that Frieza seemed to be learning that fast.  
  
“Do you know you're floating right now, bro?” he asked calmly, trying to not bring his brother out of it – though that didn't really help, as the younger Icejin immediately dropped to the floor after opening his eyes and losing his posture, having broken focus. Frieza looked at his older brother, confused. “Why was I floating? I didn't even focus on that, let alone try it.”  
  
Cooler smiled. “Hey, doing that subconsciously is a good sign. You're making progress faster than I anticipated,” he replied, getting out of his own meditation position. Frieza blinked. “Progress with what? I thought this was to help with stress.” he retorted, scratching his head. Cooler giggled. “Well, yes, it is supposed to do that. But there's something I haven't told you-”  
  
Frieza seemed incredibly interested now, crawling up to be right in front of his older brother. “What is it?” he asked, seeming excited. “There's some things that I've been taught that Ginyu and the others thought you were too young for,” Cooler explained, “it's those beams that they are capable of doing, you know?” Frieza nodded quickly, waiting for his big brother to continue. “Right. So that has to do with the meditation thing. When you focus your energy like you did during meditation, you can use it to fight. I won't demonstrate since we're on the ship right now, but next time we're training, I'll show you. But either way, you need to be able to focus your energy good for that. It can be quite tiring and I'm also not very good at it yet, but they said it comes to you when you get older and keep training it.” Cooler rubbed the back of his head. “I can't really teach you much in that regard, since I only know one of the many things you can apparently do with that energy. And even that I can't do properly,” he sighed before giving his little brother a smile. “So you being able to levitate while meditating without noticing is good.”  
  
“You know telekinesis, right? Where you use your mind to move things, like we've been practicing,” Cooler said, to which Frieza nodded again. “That's where you use your mental power. This energy thing is kind of like that, just with you focusing the energy inside your body instead of your mind to do things.”  
  
Frieza was incredibly into the topic, and Cooler ended up teaching Frieza a bit more about it than he meant to originally.  
  


* * *

  
Frieza sat up, blinking sleepily, looking over at his brother. Cooler was in that sorrowful position again, knees up to his chest, head buried in his arms, tail tightly coiled around himself.  
  
“Bro...?”  
  
The older Icejin looked up, over at Frieza, revealing his face, stained with tears, eyes red from crying. His little brother stood, walking towards him. When the two were face to face, Cooler on his knees while his younger sibling stood, Cooler quickly pulled Frieza into a tight hug, weeping harder. Frieza returned the embrace, softly and slowly patting his brother on the back, saying it's alright, that he was here, unharmed and safe.  
  
“... I had a dream.. That they whisked you away from me and brought you back to Father..” Cooler sobbed, not letting go of his little brother.  
  
“They won't,” Frieza reassured him – of course he couldn't be certain if that was the truth, but all he wanted right now was to comfort his older brother.  
  
The two remained in silence for some time.  
  


* * *

  
They approached a yet undiscovered planet that their father had not taken yet. It was livable and even appeared to have edible flora and fauna on it.  
  
The world itself was a very beautiful world, covered in much greenery and large oceans, orbiting two stars. Night barely lasted a few hours on the planet.  
  
Cooler and Frieza spent quite some time on it – not only was it habitable, but it also had food and water, meaning they could remain for a while without worry for that.  
  
That came in handy, seeing as the ship needed another recharge of solar energy.  
  
Unfortunately, the siblings were never taught how to hunt or fish, which they struggled with quite a bit at first. However, Cooler managed to catch some animals regardless thanks to his death beam attacks, though it was still hard to control. Frieza tried the more sneaky approach – catching them off-guard and finishing them off. The animals of the planet proved to be a lot tougher than anticipated though, which is why Frieza ended up spending his time fishing with his tail instead.  
  
While on the world, Cooler had also demonstrated the beam attack, like he'd promised his little brother, who tried to immediately imitate the attack, to no avail though, not able to focus enough energy (though there was a small spark that Cooler had noticed).  
  
The two sparred frequently, helping Frieza better his coordination with strikes and improving his senses too.  
  
The two remained on the planet for nearly a month. It was first after the planet's storm season started that the two left, having been unaware of the fact that there was a storm season on the planet and only realizing after they had to wait out one of the first storms (a strong one at that) in the cave where they had hidden themselves and the ship away. After it was over, the two quickly decided to leave the planet, but Cooler made a mental note that this planet is viable to return to as long as the Cold Empire sees no reason to take it, which they likely wouldn't, considering the powerful storm seasons which would be an obvious turn-off in the planet selling business.  
  
The two stayed in orbit for a bit while they decided their next target planet.  
  
By the time they got around back to the planet, a year had passed, though that meant nothing for the Icejin, as they naturally aged very slowly – the two siblings essentially hadn't really gotten older within that year, despite being numerically older than before.  
  
Within that year they avoided the planet, the two had discovered many more worlds – abandoned ones, backwater, inhabitable, civilized, taken by the Cold Empire – you name it. Though some of those worlds may have made a better choice to return to, the two Cold siblings chose to return to this planet as it was far at the edge of the territory that belonged to their father, making him visiting it less likely, since it didn't have any real value to him at this point.  
  
They also learned a lot in the year that passed. Both had gotten a bit better at combat – not much, since they were essentially children training among themselves, but some is still more than none. Frieza had recently managed a beam attack for the first time in his months of trying, though it was quite weak and uncontrolled in comparison to Cooler's.  
  
They had also been to a planet named Yardrat after barely escaping some of their father's men in outer space. It was quite a race and their ship ended up crashing on Yardrat after running out of fuel, taking damage, alongside with Cooler and Frieza themselves, who suffered some rather serious injuries.  
  
The people of the planet were kind enough to nurse the two children back to health, and they were allowed to meet the planet's elder, Pybara, who gave them a word of advice on avoiding their father (the people of Yardrat were not so much involved in the quarrels of the Cold Empire and chose to defy the direct orders of the King to execute the children should they be seen – they appeared a lot more ethical than their father). Cooler had become aware of the abilities these people were capable of using – particularly the healing ability, which he witnessed being used on his younger brother. He inquired about them, though Pybara said that they were not yet ready to undergo such training and that they should return when they are older if they still have interest.  
  
After that, the two siblings were far more careful with their visits to backwater planets – where they were discovered in the first place. They avoided them as often as possible.  
  
They had been out of touch with the Empire's schemes for quite some time now, though the two made sure to listen for rumors and the like while spending their time on planets belonging to the Empire – any information could be vital.  
  
When they returned to the planet they had visited before, dubbed Saliv on most star charts (though only few include the planet anyways since it's the only one circling the two stars), the storm season had just ended a few days ago and the land was returning to its usual state. The two brothers decided to live there for some time again, seeing as it was a quiet place that seemed safe.  



	3. Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cooler and Frieza's time on the planet Saliv.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings: Violence

Nearly a month had passed since the two Icejin had returned to the planet to reside there for some time. Due to their previous experience on Saliv, living had become easier each day and the siblings started having more time for other things once they had set up a proper camp for the time they would spend on the world. Cooler decided it would be fine to stay a while, as the planet was of no interest to their father and had big turn-off factors.  
  
One of those was the frequent storm seasons that regularly ravaged Saliv; currently, such an event was approaching. Last time they were on the world, Frieza and Cooler hightailed it out of there when the first storm hit and forced the two to stay in their shelter.  
  
This time, the younger had a rather ingenious idea – they could remain on the planet despite the storm season, remaining in their shelter and preparing themselves for it prior. While the two could not escape Saliv during storm season, said event would however also be such a turn-off for the Empire that any soldiers sent to this planet would just report back that the intense storms made it unlikely anyone would want to buy it from them and not even bother searching for any sign of intelligent life on the planet. Even if life signs were looked for, the monsoons and cyclones would likely obscure them, and no sane person would decide to descend a ship into the middle of the storm.  
  
Cooler agreed that Frieza's idea wasn't bad and the two decided to remain on Saliv for the remainder of the storm season, preparing accordingly beforehand.  
  
Once mainly confined to the cavern they built their shelter in, the two had more time to spend bonding and training. This was the first season and they were unsure how long it would last. Frieza was beginning to make progress with his beam attacks, though he still wasn't able to get consistent results, unlike Cooler – but he was only capable of that one technique, which, if they were ever to face more powerful pursuers, like Ginyu and his men, they would likely be no challenge.  
  
Frieza however managed to surpass his older brother with his telekinesis skills in turn. Originally Cooler was the one teaching his little brother how to do it and become better with it, but at this point he started having to take notes from his younger sibling, who even managed to paralyze him for several seconds with his powers. Cooler was positively impressed by his brother's progress.  
  


* * *

  
Cooler didn't even put on his cloak when he began running after his brother.  
  
Just over a week into the storm season, the two Icejin got into a bad fight over something trivial. Cooler tried to calm his brother down, but he ran away, crying.  
  
There was an active monsoon and Frieza was in grave danger out there.  
  
Thoughts raced through his head. Cooler blamed himself for this happening. 'I should have just given in and stopped the argument,' he angrily told himself, 'what if something happens to him, what if he gets hurt,'  
  
The monsoon was hard to withstand, even for him, and he knew his younger sibling would struggle even harder against it.  
  
A loud thunder roared as lightning struck a nearby tree, setting fire to it. Cooler barely dodged it, quickly returning to the path he was taking and calling out his brother's name over and over again, not getting a response.  
  
The rain hit the ground hard and loud, the nearby river was clashing against its shores dangerously, bound to overflow soon. Cooler caught a glimpse of his brother in the distance, attempting to cross the rushing water over a fragile fallen tree, dangerously bobbing and wavering, ready to crash into itself any moment.  
  
Cooler called out for his brother again; the wrong move. Frieza sped up while trying to balance over the tree, causing it to crack in the middle and crash into the water below, quickly catching the young Icejin inside it, struggling to stay above the stream, but disappearing underneath every so often. Whenever his head pushed out of the water, he screamed his brother's name, before being pushed below by the thrashing waves.  
  
His older brother ran over to the side of the river, noticing the waterfall they were approaching. Without hesitation, he threw himself into the water, swimming after Frieza, managing to catch up with him just before the drop, quickly wrapping himself around his younger brother to try and protect him from the fall, unable to fly or swim out of the stream in time.  
  
The two dropped far down, with Cooler hitting the water below first, landing with such force that his back managed to hit a rock not far underwater. Despite pain, he quickly turned himself around, carrying his brother under one arm while swimming up to the surface. He managed to drag his brother and himself to land, collapsing on the shore.  
  
His back was sore and partially bleeding from the impact. Luckily nothing vital was damaged, though he did break a bone. Frieza came to, beginning to gasp for air and coughing up water.  
  
He had several injuries too, mainly from his rushing through the underbrush while running away from the shelter, however there was also a bite from one of the animals which was hunting during the monsoon and some from the fall into the river and crashing into pieces of trees and rocks underwater.  
  
He was also very cold, and Cooler was aware he would likely get sick from the exposure. The older Icejin pushed himself up, through the pain, trying to stand, but quickly falling down to his knees again without support, the strain too strong. Frieza however managed to stand up and helped his brother up, carrying his arm over his shoulder. The two made their way back to the shelter as quickly as they could.  
  
“I'm sorry,” Frieza uttered while they were on their way. Cooler looked down to him. “I'm sorry I ran off- I caused you so much trouble and you even ended up hurt because of me...” the smaller Icejin whimpered, but Cooler quickly shook his head. “I'm just glad you're alright and back with me,” he replied, giving his brother a small smile. “But if this kind of thing ever happens again, please don't run off into a storm,” he joked, receiving a small laugh from his younger brother.   
  


* * *

  
Cooler's wounds healed fairly quickly thanks to the natural regenerative abilities of Icejin. Frieza had a couple of bandages still, mainly because his abilities weren't quite as developed as his big brother's yet.  
  
Some days had passed since the incident and the monsoon had passed since. The two brothers made up and had become even closer since then.  
  
During this short period of safety and tranquility before the next storm hits, the Icejin siblings had gone out to catch some fresh food. Frieza had managed to catch a large fish (even larger than Cooler was) by lifting it out of the water with telekinesis after spotting it. The move took quite a lot of stamina out of the young Icejin, but it did provide them with enough food (aside from what they already had beforehand, mainly plants from the surrounding area) to last through the next storm at least, if not even longer.  
  
The brothers were sitting around a small fire Cooler made. It crackled loudly as they waited for the fish to be done; both were quite hungry after their hunt today, especially Frieza. A piece of ember flicked onto Frieza's tail, who gave a quick “Ouch,” while whipping it away. “You okay?” Cooler asked, concerned as he didn't notice the ember. His younger brother nodded. “Just a piece of cinder that got on me.”  
  


* * *

  
Cooler sat near the opening of the cavern which they barricaded with various things ranging from parts of trees to stones to fibers. The Icejin stared outside, watching the storm rage, rain hitting the ground loudly, frequent roars of thunder, bright flashes from lightning strikes and the loud hissing of the gales. The water droplets clashed against the barricade, and for a moment Cooler was worried the storm might break it down, but it managed to hold.  
  
He hadn't really slept in the last 4 days. He dozed off occasionally, but never really slept. His nightmares had started becoming more frequent and terrifying ever since the incident between the two siblings happened and Frieza got hurt. The constant night terrors were so bad that at this point it didn't quite matter if he slept or not – he woke up tired either way.  
  
He curled his own tail around him, resting his arms on his knees, watching the gusts of wind slash at their makeshift home.  
  
Normally he would be meditating right now, but he felt too tired for even that. And it felt too risky – if he tried, he would probably fall asleep and suffer more nightmares again.  
  
The sound of footsteps nearby snapped Cooler out of his trance. They were very quiet, soft and weak, or sleepy.  
  
Frieza plopped down next to him, resting his head on his big brother's arm. He had brought his blanket with him, having wrapped it around himself like a cape or a cloak. The older Icejin looked down to his younger brother, before curling his tail around Frieza, giving a small smile.  
  
It didn't take long for the small Icejin to fall back asleep, quietly snoring. Cooler sighed.  
  
He began wondering if this nightmare would ever end.  
  


* * *

  
“Hey bro!” Frieza exclaimed cheerfully, carrying a bunch of fish in his arms. He walked over to Cooler, carefully dropping them nearby. The older Icejin gave his younger brother a pat on the head. “Good job,” he praised him, beginning to pick up some of the fish and impale them on sticks to cook them.  
  
Frieza gave a grin, sitting down at the fire, warming his hands. It had since started getting a bit colder, and the two agreed to leave soon after the storm season was over. Cooler supposed it would not be much longer – there was another storm approaching, a weak one, but the ship hasn't detected any new ones since that one formed. It had been nearly twelve days since that storm first formed, and in this entire time, no new one came, so the Icejin believed that to be the last of this storm season.  
  
Once it had passed, the two would get some supplies and then take off.  
  
The storm itself didn't cause half as much damage as Cooler had anticipated, despite it being weak. It barely touched their barricade at all and there were less floods than expected.  
  
After it was over, the two began preparing.  
  


* * *

  
Frieza had gone off on his own to find a good spot to fish – he was able to hunt other animals too, but fish were the easiest to catch for him – especially with telekinesis and all that.  
  
He sat by a river, concentrating, waiting for a fish to come by. He'd already lifted out three so far. A relatively large one came by, and Frieza managed to grasp it, beginning to lift it out of the water.  
  
He was so focused he didn't hear the rustling behind him. A large shadow appeared from the thicket, snarling. When the young Icejin noticed, he quickly turned his head to see a large, furred predator pounce at him.  
  
The animal bit into his arm, causing him to yelp in pain, trying to fight it off. The creature let go after he hit it in the nose, but quickly jumped at him again, toppling him over to the edge of the water. Its claws sunk into Frieza's chest as it began tearing at his tail, likely trying to rip it off or something similar. The young Icejin screamed, kicking at it.  
  
It clawed and bit into Frieza's left leg, causing significant damage to it. Frieza slapped it off with his tail, trying to get back up, but it leapt at him again, throwing him over. It kept biting and scratching him, causing the Icejin to bleed in many spots. It even managed to scratch his eye, which he barely managed to close in time so that the eye itself wasn't injured, only the surrounding area.  
  
Frieza screamed again, calling out for his big brother, continously trying to fight the beast off.  
  
A beam shot out of the underbrush, hitting the large animal in the side and causing it to roll off of Frieza. It managed to get back up and pounced at Cooler, who came out of the bushes, but the tall Icejin quickly wrestled it to the ground, killing it. He rushed over to his brother, helping him up. Frieza was severely injured and slipping in and out of consciousness.  
  
Cooler placed Frieza over his shoulder, carrying him back to the ship, dragging along the large corpse and taking the fish Frieza caught with his tail.  
  


* * *

  
He tried his best to patch up the wounds Frieza had, but they were pretty bad and Cooler wasn't sure he would make it – thoughts were racing through his head, and he blamed himself again for letting his brother wander so far away that he wasn't there right away when the animal attacked.  
  
The ship was on its way to a familiar planet now – Yardrat. Cooler recalled how they nursed the two Icejin back to health on their crash landing on the planet back then, and hoped that Pybara and his people may be willing and able to help his little brother.

  
The entire time the ship was flying, Cooler stayed close to his little brother, trying to keep him company and make sure that he was going to make it.  
  
Frieza was out cold for nearly the entire flight, only waking up momentarily once, though he didn't talk, only looking at his older brother.  
  
As they approached the planet, Cooler took control of the ship himself again, landing it close to where Pybara lived.  
  
He quickly but carefully picked up Frieza, who was still unconscious, and left the ship.  
  
The people of Yardrat recognized the Icejin siblings and Cooler was allowed into Pybara's residence once again.  
  
When he arrived there, the Yardrat seemed surprised by Cooler coming back so soon. The Icejin didn't hesitate though, placing Frieza in front of him and going down on his knees, looking up at Pybara.  
  
“Please, sir... can you help my little brother?” Cooler asked, fearful for his brother's life. The Yardrat approached them, kneeling down in front of Frieza and Cooler, the latter of whom was in tears and seemed about ready to burst out crying any moment. He began healing Frieza, as Cooler recognized the technique. Pybara, while healing Frieza, calmly asked Cooler what had happened that put the young Icejin in such a state. Cooler explained what had happened on Saliv, carefully watching Pybara.  
  
Soon, Frieza was healed, and was coming to. Cooler gave his brother a tight hug the moment he sat up, crying happily. He thanked Pybara a thousand times over, and the Yardrat smiled, saying that it was no problem. He then explained that whatever the creature they had been attacked by was, that it not only was dangerous due to the wounds it managed to inflict on the young Icejin, but that it also had a slow effecting poison, which was possibly even deadly, and that if Cooler hadn't acted so quickly the two might've been in a lot more trouble.  
  
The two Icejin thanked Pybara again and soon said their goodbyes to the Yardrat, making their way to a new planet.  



	4. Friends, and Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frieza and Cooler witness the first people they had met die at the hands of their father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Genocide, Death, Canontypical Violence
> 
> Note: The timeskip of 6 years doesn't mean a whole lot for the two siblings. For purpose of simplicity, 3 years for them is about equal to 1 Earthling year. Cooler would at this point be 10 in Human years, while Frieza is 8.  
> Icejin age weird (at least in this timeline), so for reference I'm gonna put a few important notes here:  
> -Icejin age up to the equal of a child quickly: 0-2 Earthling years (so 6 years for them) is when both the baby and toddler phase take place. They're considered babies for about one year and the other five are the toddler phase. Two Earthling years onwards is the child phase, all the way up to 12 Earthling years.  
> -The teen phase is from 12-18 Earthling Years  
> -Icejin are typically adults when they are 18 in Earthling years, which is equal to 54 years in total.

Six years had passed since Cooler and Frieza ran away from their father and became wanted. The two had learned how to live on their own – it was not comfortable like it was under their father and often times dangerous. However, they managed to stand on their own feet and continue on their way.  
  
They had many close calls with the Cold Empire since and have even found out that the Ginyu Force and the Armored Squadron had been sent to catch them several times now – luckily, they have avoided any confrontations so far.  
  
The Icejin siblings have been moving from planet to planet for the past six years, usually living on unconquered habitable planets of little interest or outside the Empire's reach.  
  
Their ship currently approached Planet Vegeta, the very first world they visited after running away from their father. They had heard troubling rumors – King Cold was apparently sending all inhabitants of Vegeta home. Cooler had seen this sort of thing happen before – it usually was a sign that their father was unhappy about the people of a world under his grasp and that he would eradicate them.  
  
The two siblings were aware there wasn't much they could do to stop their father. They were too weak to face him personally. But Frieza insisted they go back and try to warn at least the people they had grown to know over the six years.  
  
Maybe they couldn't do much, but it would still be more than nothing.  
  
They had come into orbit of the planet, and Cooler was horrified by the mass of Cold Force ships orbiting. He was certain now – their father would blow up Vegeta.  
  
The two landed and quickly put on their cloaks. Cooler himself wasn't even sure who they should try and talk to. Frieza pulled his brother by the arm and the two rushed into the marketplace.  
  
There, the Icejin spotted a young couple they had been to a couple of times when trading for food. Both seemed very distressed. Frieza loosened his grip and ran over to them. They seemed surprised by the two siblings – neither had been here a long time, since they usually spent their time on unoccupied planets now.  
  
“Kids, I think you should leave this planet as soon as possible,” the man said calmly, looking at the two far smaller Icejin. Frieza quickly shook his head, out of breath. “You need to go,” he huffed quietly, “our father will destroy this planet!” Cooler shot his younger brother a glare at the mention of 'our father' – this was an outing and if the Saiyans were hell-bent on killing them and getting the bounty, they would be done for now.  
  
The woman blinked. “Your father-?” she asked, before she had a look of realization. “Wait- you two are the kids of King Cold?!” She covered her mouth. Cooler stepped in front of his little brother. “Yes, we are- Father will destroy the planet. He always calls the inhabitants of a planet back before he destroys it,” the older Icejin quickly explained. “You don't have much time, you need to leave the planet if you want to live,”  
  
The Saiyan man didn't seem quite as shocked as his wife, more contemplatively. “Gine, if these are the kids of King Cold and what they are saying is true, my suspicions were correct- we need to bring Kakarot off-planet soon.”  
  
The woman, Gine, looked surprised, but nodded. “But what about you two?” Frieza asked. The male turned around to the Icejin, giving them a small smile. “Don't worry.”  
  
“I don't think the other Saiyans will listen to us,” Cooler said, “you have to warn your people. I don't know how long Father will idle about.” Gine looked over to her husband. “You should go tell the others, Bardock.”  
  
Bardock nodded, looking back down to the two Icejin. “Kids, will you do me a favor?” The Icejin blinked. “What kind of favor?” Cooler asked.  
  
“Make sure that our son makes it safely off-planet.”  
  
Cooler gulped. That might be a complicated request – but considering everything this pair had done for them years ago, he felt obliged to do it. “We will ensure your son lives.”  
  
Gine and Bardock gave the two a small smile. “You should go, before anyone notices you're here.” Gine said. “We will send Kakarot on his way to a distant planet. We entrust his life to you, once he leaves orbit.”  
  
With that, the four parted ways. Frieza and Cooler quickly rushed back to their ship and left to the orbit of the planet.  
  
“Bro... Do you think they will make it?” Frieza asked quietly. Cooler sighed. “I don't know. We can only hope.”  
  
The two remained not far from where the settlement was. It didn't take long – soon, the two could watch a space pod that was leaving the atmosphere and heading off into a predestined location. The two carefully tailed it, trying not to raise attention from anyone else within the Force.  
  
It was only when they came to the borders of the star system. Frieza let out an audible gasp, and Cooler turned to see what was wrong. You could see it all the way across – there hovered a massive ball of energy above the planet. Within moments, it began moving, soon colliding with the planet. Fearing it might cause a supernova, Cooler quickly brought their ship out of the nebula.  
  
Cooler got up and stood beside his little brother, who stared out into space in terror. The older Icejin wrapped his arms around his sibling, hugging him tightly, trying to comfort him. Frieza soon began crying, turning his eyes away from the glaring bright explosion, hugging his older brother back. This was the first time he had witnessed their father destroy an entire planet for seemingly no reason.  
  
The older Icejin had the exact same reaction the first time he got to witness one. Their father gave him a beating for crying.

* * *

  
It had been barely a week since the destruction of Planet Vegeta. The two siblings had safely trailed the space pod to the edge of the Nebula it's planet of origin belonged to, before watching it fly away to a distant planet that the two would likely never go to.  
  
The Icejin still hadn't quite processed what they saw. Especially Frieza, who's never seen their father do something like this before, was suffering from the shock of watching King Cold do such a thing, committing **genocide** on an entire civilization because they did something he didn't agree with. Or maybe he feared a mutiny – they couldn't be sure. It was around this time Cooler could really see the hatred Frieza had for their father grow. He not only hated him for the abuse the two siblings went through, he was disgusted by his father's actions.  
  
“I'll never forgive him,” Frieza said just a few hours after, when the two siblings really started processing what had happened. He wished that their father would experience the same pain and suffering that he constantly made people feel every day. Cooler couldn't agree more with his younger brother.   
  
They moved to another star system, landing on a planet known as K'Sauri on star charts. It was a desert world with few lakes and rivers. Despite that, it had a quite stable ecosystem; there were many plants that got their water from underground lakes, and animals would in turn eat from these plants or live in underground caverns with rivers and lakes. Most of the creatures were reptilian, though there were a few species of birds and mammals left.  
  
Cooler and Frieza set up a small hideout within one of the caves that had a stream going from it into another nearby cavern, giving them access to water.  
  
On their second day of their stay, Frieza noticed that a pack of large reptilians lived in the other cave and had started carefully inspecting the makeshift home of the two Icejin – they were quite obviously scared of them. When they saw Frieza had noticed them, the four reptiles ran off into the lower cavern again.  
  
While hunting under the surface of the planet might've been just as profitable, Frieza argued that prey would be easier to see above ground, since it was basically an endless desert with little greenery to hide among, aside from cacti and semi-frequent oases along with a few dried up bushes and trees here and there. Cooler agreed, so they went to find food on the surface.  
  
After their experience on Saliv, the two rarely went hunting separately anymore. Cooler was way too worried about it happening again.  
  
The two arrived at a riverbank, blossoming greenery around them. The two plucked some fruits from the nearby trees and bushes, before going closer to the river. Frieza used his usual technique of catching fish, though the fish here proved to be a lot more tenacious than the ones he was used to, causing him to start flinging them up into the sky to let his older brother catch them.  
  
On their way back to base, a small pack of three mammals attacked them, though Cooler made quick work of them with a ki blast.  
  
The siblings returned home with their bounty, and Cooler started a small campfire, while Frieza impaled the fish they caught on sticks so they could cook above the flame. The older was busy chopping up one of the mammals they had caught when Frieza noticed one of the lizards watching from afar, likely having been attracted by the noise or smell of the fish cooking. The two stared at each other for several moments before the creature scurried off again, probably scared.

The Icejin paid it no further mind and turned back to the fish he was watching, enjoying the warmth of the fire.  
  


* * *

  
Frieza awoke to quiet rustling outside, sitting up, sleepily rubbing his eyes. Cooler hadn't noticed the noise and was still sleeping, so the younger brother decided to go check without waking the other.  
  
Outside, the young Icejin saw one of the lizards he had seen earlier; the rustling came from some rubble it knocked over while climbing up the ledge. It was approaching some of the food that had remained from when the two siblings ate earlier. When it noticed Frieza, it quickly backed up, though it was not quite as shy this time, not running away instantly, only keeping a certain distance.  
  
The two stared at each other for several moments, when the creature made a small whine, cowering. Frieza picked up a fairly large piece of meat, carefully and slowly holding it out, not trying to scare the animal away. It stared for a few moments, before very cautiously approaching the young Icejin. Once it was close enough, it sunk its sharp teeth into the meat, prompting Frieza to let go so the lizard could take it. The animal quickly scurried off after it had a hold of it, disappearing back down the river to the lower cavern.

Frieza stayed for just a bit longer, waiting to see if it would come back, before deciding to go back to sleep.

* * *

The siblings agreed to stay on the planet for around a month, provided that no emergencies may pop up. One week proceeded without any incident, and the two spent time training when they weren't out hunting or playing. Cooler had significantly improved on ki blasts, managing to figure out a few new types on his own, though they were very hard to control and he rarely used them, unless it was necessary. Frieza, on the other hand, had improved his telekinesis abilities so far that he was able to lift up medium-sized boulders and also throw smaller rocks.  
  
After the first visit, Frieza secretly fed the local lizards some of their leftovers at night – it was a one-time thing at the beginning, but after he did it twice more, the creatures began showing up regularly at night. He hadn't told his older brother, thinking he might scold him for it.  
  
On the third day of the second week, the two Icejin found the carcass of a freshly killed mammal-like animal that could easily feed the siblings for the rest of the day. It was placed in such a way that it was obvious it wasn't just collateral damage or anything, it was deliberately put there. Frieza quickly put two and two together, realizing that it must have been one of the lizards he started feeding that left it here as a sort of “thank you”.  
  
Cooler noticed that Frieza seemed to know something he didn't and began asking him if he knew what put the animal here, also having noticed that it was brought here on purpose and not left by mistake. The younger tried to talk his way out of giving an explanation at first, but soon spilled the beans when he mentioned the lizards from the lower cavern, ratting himself out to his brother.  
  
The older giggled and found it quite endearing that Frieza managed to make friends with the pack that they essentially shared a temporary home with, and didn't even scold his younger brother, despite the fact that the situation could've easily turned dangerous. It also explained why Frieza was often still sleepy in the morning when they got up, and Cooler was a little surprised that his younger brother was willing to give up sleep for something like this, considering that he often complained if the older Icejin woke him up just a bit too early.  
  
He let the situation slide and told his younger brother that he could feed them whatever leftovers they had when they came by, as long as he didn't feed them everything of it (in case of an emergency, they kept at least a small amount of supplies ready).  
  
The two spent most of the day playing and training a bit here and there, as they didn't need to hunt thanks to the graciously gifted meal from Frieza's newfound friends.  
  
Over the course of the next two weeks, the pack became less shy and moved around their place far more frequently, not even afraid of Cooler anymore at this point, who was usually the reason for them scurrying off so fast, since none of the pack was familiar with him. They became quite integrated into their daily routine for those two weeks, even following the two siblings when they went hunting or joining in on them playing. They weren't domesticated by any means, but the pack had grown a mutual respect and affection for the siblings, just like they had for the creatures. They eventually began even sleeping close to the Icejin after an incident with a large monster that tried to attack them; the lizards fended off the beast, though some of the pack got injured. Frieza and Cooler patched the wounded up, doing their best to help the wounds heal with the things the planet and their reserves had to offer.  
  
By the time the third week on the planet was over, the siblings and the pack had become near inseparable – the lizards always stayed close to the two siblings and accompanied them on nearly every hunt, only very rarely staying back to protect the makeshift camp. Frieza had really grown to love the creatures, and Cooler had become quite fond of them as well.

* * *

  
On the fourth day of the fourth week, in the middle of the night, the two siblings woke up to the growling of the lizards. The moonlight was coldly shining in from the opening that the two kids entered the cavern from with their spacecraft. Cooler and Frieza quickly and quietly looked outside, where they saw the lizards growling at vague shapes in the darkness of the cave. Cooler managed to notice a form which looked like another Cold Empire spaceship. The figures seemed to have noticed the two boys had woken up, as one of the three shot at the siblings who were standing in the doorway of their own ship.  
  
One of the lizards snarled loudly and leapt at the one who shot, while two others from the pack of twelve attacked the other two. The first one who attacked was shot 10 times and killed in an instant, with the creature going limp immediately, falling off of the man.  
  
Frieza stepped outside the vehicle, yelling for the attackers to stop. The one who had killed the lizard laughed and the other two threw the ones attacking them off too, joining in. They told them that they had orders from their father and that they would give them a hefty sum, whether they were caught dead or alive. The leader of the trio pointed his weapon at Frieza, who didn't respond to their talk, instead putting his hands forward. Cooler had rushed to his brother's side by now, ready to get in the way of these three. The trio took Frieza's raising hands as a sign of surrender, laughing even more now.  
  
They abruptly stopped when they became paralyzed by Frieza's telekinesis, being lifted up into the air. Cooler watched in shock when Frieza brought them ever closer to the large ravine in the center of the lower cave, with seemingly no end. “I hope you feel the same pain my friend did when you shot him to death,” the younger Icejin cried, throwing them down the ravine. Their screams echoed for a while until the only thing you heard was a loud thud. Cooler didn't stop his younger brother. These men were threatening their survival and hurt one of their friends – the only friends they had in this universe.  
  
The bodies fell to the ground, bleeding out. Frieza fell to his knees, breathing hard, completely exhausted by what he just did. Cooler and the remaining lizards tried to comfort Frieza. Once the younger felt ready, his older brother helped him up, carrying him back into their ship. There, Cooler let his younger brother down in his bed, where he passed out nearly immediately. Cooler decided that they would take whatever scraps they could take from the ship the bounty hunter trio and then leave the planet. As much as he didn't want to, he feared they would endanger their friends even more if they stayed here any longer. It was the best for them.  
  
Cooler patched up the two lizards who had been attacked by the trio too, and made a small burial site for the one who was shot to death. It wasn't much more than an unmarked grave, with only a small sign indicating that someone cared about the one buried here, but Cooler knew there wasn't much more to do.  
  
The next morning, Cooler told Frieza that they needed to leave the planet. The younger originally protested, but quickly saw his older brother's arguments and agreed, despite being dissatisfied with the result. Cooler remarked that they could maybe return here in a few months, once the coast is clear and the trail led away from this place.

They took apart the ship as much as they could, repairing pieces of their own ship with it and keeping spares within their spacecraft.  
  
Two days later, the two siblings tearfully parted ways with their lizard friends, with Frieza hoping they would see each other again soon. With that, the duo left and their trail was quickly lost, as the members of the Cold Empire sent to investigate the lost contact trio soon found that their ship was missing and came to the conclusion that the trio and their ship must've fallen into the ravine or taken apart by the local wildlife.  
  



	5. Rage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rage is a catalyst for many things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: (Child) Abuse, Canon Typical Violence

Frieza was whimpering, tightly hugging his older brother, scared of what might happen next.  
  
The two hid behind a rock, trying to keep calm and quieten their own breathing.  
  
Loud footsteps crossed the distance between their attackers and them. A shadowy figure hovered above them, smiling, saying something that neither of the two could understand.  
  
Cooler pulled his younger brother closer, trying to protect him. A second figure approached, staring down at them, pulling out something that seemed to be a gun.  
  
A shot and a scream.  
  
\------------------------------  
  
Cooler shot up in his makeshift bed, shaking, grasping at the blanket before frantically inspecting himself with his hands, looking for any wounds.  
  
No, just another nightmare.  
  
He took a deep breath, attempting to steady himself, trying to calm down. He used the technique Berryblue taught him once. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, breathed out, held it for a moment, repeat.  
  
Ever since the incident on K'Sauri, Cooler has been plagued by nightmares of his brother and him being caught somewhere. They were so close, and had the pack of lizards they'd befriended there not saved them, the two would've likely been abducted in their sleep, brought back to their abusive home.  
  
After continuing the exercise for a while, Cooler became calm, and shuffled back under his blanket. He hoped that this time, he wouldn't suffer another nightmare. He'd give anything for it, as a matter of fact.  
  
He closed his eyes, sinking back into sleep.  
  
\------------------------------  
  
He held his hands to his face, crying into them, pushed up against the wall of one of the corners in the room, tail wrapped around himself, trying to hide.  
  
The sound of a harsh slap, followed by a thud and his own brother's crying.  
  
He covered his ears with his hands, tightly shutting his eyes, not wanting to see.  
  
His father's words were blurred and unintelligible, but there was another clear thud, footsteps that soon came to a halt, and following a short pause, his brother began screaming as if his limbs were being torn from him, accompanied by cracking.  
  
He tried to shut his ears tighter, but it didn't make the painful sounds go away. He cried to himself louder, erupting into sobs.  
  
His father screamed something at him, which he didn't understand, but it instinctively caused him to freeze up and stop doing whatever he was doing. He opened his eyes slightly, and through his blurry vision, he saw his brother screaming, with their father standing on his tail, breaking the bones in it.  
  
His brother was bleeding from the nose and a wound on his face, painting the floor a deep pinkish red color. He continued screaming as the bones cracked, unable to get back up from the immense pain.  
  
He began crying again upon the sight of his brother, receiving a slap from his father's tail, who scolded him and told him to relish in his brother's pain. But he couldn't stand it. He felt his own blood drip down from the wound that was caused by the impact, and began sobbing even harder, holding his head in fear and despair.  
  
His brother went limp from the pain and trauma he just went through, falling unconscious.  
  
The father turned his gaze upon the crying child. He cried out with fear, trying to back away even further into the corner he was already pushed into, as his father approached him.  
  
He shut his eyes tightly, sobbing uncontrollably, shaking with fear, as he felt the impact of the slap, followed by being picked up by the arm. The grip was tight and it hurt so very much, but the grip only got stronger the harder he struggled against it.  
  
He felt a crack.  
  
\------------------------------------  
  
Frieza was sitting up, staring at his own hands absentmindedly. His body was shaking, and he didn't respond to any outside noise or movement. He eventually wrapped his left hand around his right wrist, clenching it carefully several times before letting go.  
  
His heart was racing, his body shaking and he was breathing rapidly. He wanted to vomit, his head was spinning.  
  
First, he tried solving the attack on his own. He tried taking deep breaths, tried the coping technique his older brother showed him, but it didn't work. He tried thinking of his happy place. But he couldn't. He just kept thinking of the horrible things their father did to them.  
  
It was still in the middle of the night on the unnamed planet they took a quick stop on. Frieza carefully got on all fours and crawled over to his brother very slowly, scared of falling over or something else.  
  
He shook his brother awake, who sleepily blinked his eyes open, staring up at his younger sibling hovering above him.  
  
Frieza had since begun crying again, and sat down on his knees, holding his head with shaky hands.  
  
At first, he seemed confused and wanted to ask what Frieza why he woke him up in the middle of the night, but he quickly noticed the younger's intense shaking and crying, and recognized the attack. He sat up, carefully reaching out his hand, putting it on Frieza's shoulder, who jerked away at first, causing Cooler to retract his hand and murmuring comforting words.  
  
“Stay in the present with me, Frieza,” he muttered, reaching out his hand a second time several seconds later. Frieza looked to his older brother, and didn't jerk away this time, instead letting go of his head and hugging his older brother, falling into him, nearly causing the two to fall over.  
  
Frieza was still sobbing and breathing too fast, shaking heavily. Cooler calmly hushed him, carefully rubbing his back to try and calm him down a little.  
  
“Let's do the breathing exercise together, okay?”  
  
The younger gave a weak nod, and Cooler helped Frieza pace his breathing speed to his older brother's. Over the next few minutes, his shaking began to lessen, he was breathing at a normal pace again and his heart slowed down.  
  
He was still sobbing quietly, and his older brother pulled him closer into the hug, allowing Frieza to retain a certain grasp on reality even in such a situation.  
  
After about half an hour of the two sitting together and talking, getting their thoughts off the bad things they'd been dreaming about, both went back to sleep, knowing that they need to at least be a bit rested for the next day.  
  
\----------------------

Frieza sat next to his brother, calmly chewing a piece of fish, staring out into space and watching the planets they passed.   
  
It had been a few months since the incident on K'Sauri, and things had been become calm again. The two siblings haven't had any run-ins with the Cold Empire since, aside from doing trade business on backwater planets.  
  
Still, they, especially Cooler, had become a bit more paranoid since then. It really put into perspective how close they were to being caught and taken back to their abusive father, who would likely put them through hell if he ever saw them again alive.  
  
Frieza's tail wagged from side to side passively while he finished up his meal. A planet they passed reminded him a bit of Planet Vegeta, giving him a very bittersweet feeling. His tail plopped to the ground, and he gave a heavy sigh.  
  
“What's wrong?” Cooler asked, to which Frieza only shook his head, pointing to the planet. Cooler understood what was bothering his younger brother.  
  
The two passed the planet.  
  
\----------  
  
Just a short bit after a recent visit to another backwater planet, a Cold Force ship had started tailing the two in their own.   
  
Cooler began to try to shake off the ship, but it was clear they were relentless pursuers. Frieza watched them follow their own ship, while Cooler steered their spacecraft towards a small meteor belt surrounding a planet, hoping to confuse the people following them and escaping them.  
  
“We're gaining distance,” Frieza said, watching the pursuers slowly disappear into the distance, becoming more obscured by the meteors.  
  
That was a mistake.  
  
A small meteor fragment hit the ship's engine, forcing it to land on the planet below. They were lucky enough to have averted a crash-landing, but their pursuers knew where they were and landed not far from them.  
  
The area of the planet they landed on was a Savannah bordering on a wasteland with few scrubs left. Cooler quickly left the ship with Frieza, hoping to be able to find a hiding spot before their chasers would find them.  
  
It was too late.  
  
“Stop right there, kids,” a voice said, and a group of five bounty hunters appeared out of their own spacecraft. There was a tall one with short hair, a small one, who was barely taller than Frieza, with three eyes, two who were about the same height as Cooler, one with pure red eyes and one with very long hair, and their leader, an Icejin, just like them, slightly taller than Cooler.  
  
Frieza froze up, shaking with fear. Cooler stood in front of Frieza protectively, trying to shield him.  
  
“This is the end of the line. You're goin' back to your dad.” the Icejin stared at the two before him. “Come along with us nicely, and you won't be hurt,”  
  
“We're going nowhere,” Cooler exclaimed across the empty field, “you won't take us alive!” Frieza was crying quietly, peeking out from behind his brother.  
  
The group chuckled, staring at the two children. “Doesn't matter,” the tallest said, “we still get a hefty reward even if you two are corpses when we bring you back.”  
  
Cooler stepped back slightly, still hiding his little brother behind him. He wasn't going to let these five hurt his little brother – and he was definitely not going to let them take him and his brother home to their father, where they would probably be abused until they're dead or completely brainwashed.  
  
“We're givin' you one last chance, kids,” the Icejin said, trying to look as innocent as a bounty hunter out for your head possibly can look. “Come with us, and you won't be harmed.”  
  
“You have no idea what our father does to us. We won't be going back. Not alive.” Cooler responded, taking another step back.  
  
The Icejin before them shrugged. “Whatever. Don't say we didn't give you two a chance,” he laughed, pulling out a weapon.  
  
At this moment, Frieza swallowed all his fear, and stepped out behind his older brother, raising his hands to trap the bounty hunters in a paralysis field.  
  
But within a heartbeat, he felt something pierce through his shoulder, causing him to let out a scream, before both Cooler and him found themselves trapped in a paralysis field themselves.  
  
The Icejin grinned, hands stretched out straight in front of him. “I figured that's how you finished off the team sent after you on K'Sauri. People always underestimate the telekinetic abilities of Icejin. Unfortunately, I won't.” He curled his hands into fists, tightening the field around them.   
  
The Icejin looked back at his team. “Alright boys, get ready to take 'em away.”  
  
Cooler couldn't move much more than his eyes. He gazed over to Frieza, who had a wound in his shoulder from the shot, bleeding from it. He was crying and the only thing stopping him from crying out right now was definitely the paralysis field.  
  
But then Frieza began raising his hand again, despite it clearly being painful and a huge strain on him. The Icejin noticed the other trying to lift his arm, and quickly signaled one of his men with his tail. The smallest fired another shot, this time at Frieza's abdomen, leaving another clear wound that started bleeding and had a burn mark around it.  
  
The man laughed at Frieza's wincing, and fired a second shot for good measure.  
  
In that moment, something in Cooler just... snapped.  
  
He was seething with rage. This wasn't like back then, when one of the animals attacked Frieza. He was doing this just to torture his younger brother at this point.   
  
The rage was boiling inside him, and he felt like it was going to overflow and overpower him. He was almost fighting for control of his own body at this moment.  
  
But then the anger was stronger.  
  
He lost control.  
  
…  
  
Frieza was staring over at his older brother. The Icejin and his crew were frightened, watching as Cooler changed,  _transformed_ into something else. But the Icejin kept his confidence, thinking that his paralysis field would hold out anyways.  
  
Cooler was taller, he looked completely different, and had Frieza not just witnessed the transformation himself, he would've been sure that this was not Cooler. But this still did nothing about the paralysis field.  
  
Or so Frieza thought.  
  
This... transfigured Cooler easily brought out of paralysis, simply moving through it as if it were but a small swamp. Frieza watched his older brother, barely conscious still from the wounds he had received.  
  
When the Icejin saw Cooler simply step out of the field, he immediately dropped his hands in fear, causing Frieza to fall to the ground, unable to hold himself up anymore.  
  
Cooler dashed towards the five, and Frieza, holding onto his consciousness, watched him smack and knock down the Icejin first, stomping him into the ground, before taking out two of the remaining four, smashing their heads into a nearby boulder. The last two tried to run away, but Cooler grabbed them by their hair, slamming them into the floor face first, before stepping on one's back, crushing bones, before grabbing the other with his tail, choking him to death.  
  
He turned back to the Icejin, the last survivor of the massacre, who was trying to get back up and defend himself.  
  
He managed to fight with Cooler at a decent pace for a few minutes, before Cooler caught him by surprise and grabbed his neck, before he completely bodied the Icejin. There was the sound of bones cracking – no, shattering, along with loud, intense screams, before they died down in an instant, when the Icejin was but a broken body.   
  
He dropped the corpse on the ground, stepping on it again for good measure.  
  
Then Cooler turned to Frieza, slowly making his way over to him. For several moments, Frieza feels something he's never felt for his brother before – fear. He becomes afraid that in this... wild state, Cooler wouldn't be able to recognize him.  
  
But then, the older brother drops to the ground, falling out of this new form back into his usual one, hitting the ground, unconscious and clearly exhausted.  
  
Frieza managed to get up, barely, and walked over to his brother, picking him up with his good arm and carefully carrying him over his shoulder back to the ship, which luckily didn't sustain any damage, other than the short engine blackout from the fragment.  
  
He had watched his brother do this before, and slowly set the autopilot for a nearby planet marked as inhabited, named Itania.  
  
Shortly after the ship lifted off, Frieza too passed out from his wounds.


	6. New friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frieza and Cooler make a new friend after escaping a desperate struggle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm introducing an OC. He, like all other OCs that will appear in future chapters, are supporting characters that join the two siblings' little spacefaring crew. The spotlight will continue to remain on the two main characters, Cooler and Frieza.
> 
> For a small overview of the ages by the end of the chapter:  
> Frieza is 9, Cooler is 11, Icequ would be around 14 Earthling years.
> 
> Also, Frieza loves milk.

Frieza slowly sat up, grasping at... a blanket? Where was he?  
  
He frantically looked around, noticing his older brother in a second bed in the room. There was also a third bed, which was empty.  
  
Cooler was still unconscious it seemed, though Frieza noticed that his brother had bandages around his body, something he was sure he didn't do.  
  
He inspected himself, noticing a bandage around his shoulder, abdomen and head.  
  
He began having a closer look at the room he was in, recognizing that it was a house that seemed to be built into a small gem canyon.  
  
Frieza tried getting out of the bed, but wincing as soon as he put his feet on the ground, the two wounds on his abdomen still hurting a lot. He pushed through the pain and made his way to the open doorway, looking around in the small house for someone who could explain the situation to him.  
  
He reached what seemed to be a combination of a kitchen and living room, where... an Icejin stood, making food.  
  
He didn't even turn around to look at Frieza when he entered the room.  
  
“Ah, you're awake. You're the smaller one, right?” he asked casually, not looking away from his work. His tail was tapping against the ground frequently.  
  
Frieza seemed surprised this Icejin recognized that he was the smaller of the two without even looking at him. “Yes,” Frieza replied, “My name's... Frieza,” he hesitated for a moment to say. “Who are you and where are we?”  
  
The Icejin still didn't look at him. “Frieza, that's a nice name,” he murmured for a moment before answering the other's questions. “I'm Icequ,” he explained, “and you're on Planet Itania. Your ship landed near my village and we found you and your friend unconscious and injured, so I offered to nurse you back to health. I'm glad to see you up; how are you feeling?” he asked, still not having spared Frieza a look.  
  
Frieza smiled. “Nice to meet you, Icequ,” he replied, “and I'm feeling alright. The wounds still hurt a bit...” Icequ gave a small nod. “Yes, they were quite deep burn wounds; Polara helped me patch them up.”  
  
Frieza perked up. “Who's Polara?” he asked, curiously.  
  
“My next-door neighbor,” Icequ retorted, “they are an Icejin as well.”  
  
Frieza blinked. “Wait, is this the Icejin homeworld?” he asked, seeing as there were apparently a few Icejin around here. Icequ chuckled and shook his head. “No, no, we're just another backwater planet in the Cold Empire. Polara and I just happen to both live here.”  
  
That raised a question in Icequs head though. “Don't you know what the Icejin homeworld looks like or is called?”  
  
Frieza shook his head and replied no. “I've never been there,”  
  
Icequ seemed a bit surprised by that statement, but left that at it, instead changing topics. “How's your friend doing?” he asked. “My friend?” Frieza seemed confused. “Yes, the person who was with you in the ship.” “Oh, that's my older brother!” Frieza exclaimed.  
  
He looked back into the room he had come from, where his older brother was still unconscious.  
  
“He's still out cold.” Frieza said, feeling worried.  
  
Icequ could hear the worry in his voice and tried to comfort him a bit. “I'm sure he'll recover fine. He didn't seem to have many wounds,” he replied, “I think he just needs to rest for quite some time.”  
  
He then turned around with a plate in hand, as well as a glass in the other. On the plate was some cooked fish with vegetables, while the glass contained milk.  
  


“I was thinking, you're probably hungry after waking up, so I made some food for you and your brother, when he wakes up. So here, eat up.” He placed the glass and plate on the table in front of them, which had four chairs surrounding it. “Do you mind telling me a bit about yourself though?”  
  
Frieza was absolutely astonished at the kindness of this stranger, and happily sat down. The sight of milk made him all giddy. “Thank you, sir,” he said, very grateful for this meal. Icequ chuckled. “It's okay, you can just call me Icequ. I don't think I'm old enough to be considered a sir yet,”  
  
Frieza said okay and began eating, very hungry as he hadn't anything in a while – he wasn't even sure how long he was out cold.  
  
“I haven't had milk in years...” Frieza murmured, being very happy about it. Icequ seemed surprised about that notion. “You haven't had milk in years?”  
  
Frieza looked at Icequ, who had sat down in the chair opposite to him, and for the first time noticed – Icequ didn't open his eyes. Frieza wasn't sure, but the previous events started adding up – maybe Icequ was blind?  
  
Either way, he gave a quiet sigh, before explaining to Icequ that his brother, Cooler, and him had run away from home nearly seven years ago now, and that, because they frequently only lived on backwater planets and unoccupied ones, that milk was basically a rarity. He wasn't even sure the last time they had it.  
  
Icequ was surprised to hear the two had run away from home, and gears seemed to be turning in his head. To ease the question for him, Frieza started explaining that their father is King Cold and that they ran away because he was bad to them. Frieza also explained they were wanted, and was curious that Icequ didn't know that.  
  
“I hadn't even heard about that,” he replied, thinking. Frieza asked him to not sell him and his brother out to the Empire, but Icequ quickly shook his head. “No, no, I won't do such a thing. There's a clear reason you two don't want to go back, and no bounty in the world could outweigh the guilt that would come with such a decision.”  
  
Frieza seemed surprised. “Lots of people have already come after us. King Cold even sent the Ginyu Force, an elite commando, after us to take us back to him. Father is very hellbent on getting us back... As a matter of fact, the reason Cooler and I were so injured when we came here was because a group of Cold Empire members came after us on a nearby planet and attacked us. They nearly captured us, but then...” Frieza remembered what happened on the planet, and frowned.  
  
“Something happened with my older brother, and he took all five of the guys down, but... he changed before that, he wasn't really himself.”  
  
Icequ seemed thoughtful. “Hm, changed in what way? Physically?” Frieza replied yes, physically.  
  
“Well, I have heard that some Icejin are capable of taking on different forms, though I've never seen it myself. They say that those require a lot of training, though.”  
  
Frieza shook his head. “I mean... we have been training during the time we've lived on our own, but I don't think it was anywhere near enough training... We're both just kids, I don't think the training we do would do much for such a thing.”  
  
Icequ nodded a bit. “Yeah, I don't think that someone could attain a transformation that easily anyways. Did anything else seem off about your brother when it happened?”  
  
Frieza thought back, before nodding.  
  
“Yes, he seemed very very angry just before he changed... maybe that's connected to it?”  
  
Icequ hummed in response. “Yes, that might be it. Maybe we should ask your brother when he wakes up.”  


* * *

The rest of the day proceeded normally, and it was nearly night by the time Cooler woke up. He was equally as confused as Frieza was at first, but his younger brother quickly explained what was up.  
  
Cooler was very thankful to Icequ for the help he had provided the two with, but noted that the two shouldn't stay long, because there might still be members of the Cold Empire tracking them and they might put Icequ in danger.  
  
He however wasn't aware of anything that had happened prior to this, from the point of the bounty hunters onward. As a matter of fact, the last thing he remembered was this rage and then nothing except for a few flashes of the hunters.  
  
Frieza explained what really happened, and while Cooler seemed concerned by Frieza's words at first, Icequ explained that some Icejin are able to transform, though he'd never seen it himself.  
  
During that day, Icequ also showed the two siblings some fighting techniques they didn't even know existed. Frieza was very eager to learn them, but both Icequ and his older brother argued that they were still too exhausted for such a thing right now.  
  
The two siblings stayed for another day while recovering, but decided they should head out the next day, because it was dangerous for them to stay for too long on a planet that belonged to the Empire.  
  
It got Icequ thinking.  


* * *

“Hey, boys, would you mind taking me along?”  
  
He phrased it about as casually as he could, but Frieza and Cooler still seemed taken aback, especially the former.  
  
“You want to come with us? But we already said that we could be in danger any moment we're out there-”  
  
“Yes, I know. And I won't argue if you don't want to take me along, of course. It's just,” he paused for a moment, “I think you two could use an extra hand. Besides, by how impressed you seemed by my training, it looks like there's some things I could teach you,”  
  
Cooler blinked. “Are you really sure?”  
  
“Yes. There's something out there I want to know, and I have a feeling I won't get another chance like this,” Icequ replied, sounding very serious.  
  
The two siblings pondered amongst themselves for a while, before turning their heads to Icequ.  
  
“Hey, Icequ?” Frieza said, smiling. Icequ hummed to acknowledge that he heard him. “Welcome aboard,”  
  
Icequ was very excited by those news. He didn't want to explain yet that he was hoping to find out what happened to his parent when going along with them, but he also sincerely thought he might be of help to the two.  
  
The trio headed off the next day, giving Icequ some time to say farewell to his friends in the village.  


* * *

Having Icequ on board was not only a delight for the two siblings because they had some company now, but also because this made backwater planets far more accessible. Icequ wasn't exactly known yet to be helping the brothers, so he could easily get supplies without the two risking to be caught. He also had quite a bit of new knowledge on fighting and ki, and proved to be a formidable training partner.  
  
It was only about a month into their journey together that Icequ confided the two Icejin in his wish to find out what happened to his parent, who one day mysteriously left and never came back. He explains that unlike them, he wasn't on bad terms with his parent, so he is unsure why his parent left. Cooler and Frieza agreed that they would help him look for clues, much to Icequ's relief.  
  
The three continued on their journey for another three years with nearly no further incident, aside from the occassional run-ins with members of the Cold Empire who managed to track the siblings down. They never got as close as the group that attacked Cooler and Frieza before their arrival on Itania though.  


* * *

The three Icejin had since started living on a lush, humid and hot jungle world known as Boht. They first had trouble adjusting to the climate of the planet, as it was quite warm in comparison to most worlds they'd been to, aside from the scorching desert worlds they typically didn't stay on long and only landed to recharge energy for their ship; and K'Sauri, of course, but K'Sauri had the benefit of deep caverns that kept the heat of the planet off of their backs.  
  
Within just a week though, the group had grown accustomed to the warmth, and found shelter in a clearing within the jungle, where rain often fell.  
  
Due to its abdundant plant life, most of the fauna on the world were passive herbivores, rather than predators. There remained only a few here and there, and most of them weren't interested in engaging with the three off-worlders.  
  
Not only the flora of the planet was huge, towering hundreds of meters above the trio, but the animals were just as tall, many easily reaching over ten meters tall.  
  
There was also small fauna, which were all skilled climbers and remained mainly within the tree tops.  
  
While they could easily fly to accquire food of an average size to other prey animals they had previously hunted, as the giants of the planet certainly were far more than they needed, but the trio felt it would be too cruel to take only a part of those creatures, like their tail, Frieza thought it might be good training to at least occasionally climb up the staggeringly tall trees the old fashioned way. Icequ agreed, and Cooler didn't object to the idea either, seeing as there's definitely a benefit to improve their skills, especially for unlikely situations where they might not be able to fly or similar.  
  
Cooler was also impressed at Icequ's skill in hunting, not having expected that he would be as good at it as he was. Icequ had since explained to the two (as Frieza was curious) how he managed to get around so well despite being blind, telling them that he had trained his other senses to be better since he was a child, and also mentioned that he can see creatures moving through vibrations – the reason he so regularly tapped his tail against the floor and also why he made sure it never left the ground beneath his feet entirely.  
  
The three had set up a base that they would remain at for another week or two before they headed off to a new planet, potentially restocking on another backwater planet. The three usually traded various finds they had on these undiscovered worlds for something to eat – it pretty much included anything, ranging from simple pelts or new kinds of meat to valuable minerals that some planets just didn't provide.  
  
The Cold Empire regularly traded materials and the like from one planet to another, so it was not something uncommon, suspicious or even unaccepted.  
  
While on Boht, the two siblings began improving their physical skills more and more, lasting far longer during climbing sessions than they did the first few times, where they only reached about fifty meters up before they were too exhausted and slid back down. Icequ wasn't exactly that great at it either, still reaching an impressive height of thirty meters on his first few climbs, not really used to it.  
  
However, by the time their stay was nearing its end, the three often managed to climb above 100 meters without much struggle, with Cooler even managing to get to 250 one time, though he never got quite as high without climbing again.  
  
The three also trained amongst themselves, with Icequ helping Frieza and Cooler sharpen their senses a bit, something he seemed to quite thoroughly enjoy doing. The two siblings were often confused, especially during times they trained their hearing, because the jungle was teeming with life and quite loud – Frieza was really struggling to hear all the different sounds that Icequ so easily told apart.  
  
Still, this training had shown improvements by the time the three moved away from the planet again.  
  
Things seemed to look up for the two escapees and their new friend.  
  
But soon it took a turn for the worse.


	7. Kidnapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little insight on the past, and a horrifying event in the present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: (Child) abuse, violence, kidnapping.
> 
> This is where the real game begins y'all. Also no proof reading so if theres mistakes, thats why.

Frieza sat in the back, tearing up. Cooler was “training” with their father, though it was more of a beat-down than actual training, like they'd have with Ginyu and his men.  
  
Cooler hit the ground harshly, bleeding from his nose and having a wound above his eye now. He tried getting back up, but King Cold quickly grabbed him by the tail, throwing him into another wall back-first – a loud cracking sound, followed by a thud.  
  
Frieza was trying to hide his whimpers and tears, because he knew they would make Father angry – but seeing his older brother thrown around like a toy was very painful to watch. At the sound of some bones cracking, a quiet sob escaped Frieza, causing his father to turn around and give him a glare, starting to walk towards him.  
  
But then a blast hit him in the back.  
  
It didn't exactly do any significant damage to him, but it caused their father to turn around, looking back at Cooler, who was on his knees, panting heavily, with one hand stretched forward, from which he had shot the blast.  
  
King Cold walked back over to Cooler, who was trying to stand back up, clearly tired out. Their father kicked him in the stomach, flinging Cooler into another wall in the room with his tail.  
  
Frieza saw his older brother's eyes close slowly, and watched how he slipped in and out of consciousness. King Cold stepped over to him, putting his foot down on Cooler's arm, causing it to quickly snap.  
  
The older screamed at the top of his lungs from the pain, trying to wiggle free, pointlessly.  
  
Frieza began crying at the sight.  
  
He screamed for Father to stop, which caught King Cold's interest, turning his head to the younger Icejin.  
  
He'd always considered Frieza the pipsqueak of the two sons – despite his immense power and potential, one that easily exceeded even his older brother's, he was always too afraid to fight back and only cried; something that disgraced him and his father planned on beating out of him soon enough.  
  
But this time, Frieza wasn't just upset and crying; no, he was furious more than anything.  
  
Cooler watched his younger brother through fading sight, seeing him charge at their father, and he suddenly felt the weight off his body, turning his head slightly, seeing Frieza having planted himself firmly in their father's stomach, headbutting him with all his might.  
  
Their father actually staggered for a moment, but he recovered all too quickly, and angrily kicked Frieza away, though he still seemed intrigued. The two fought, and for about a minute, Frieza kept up, but King Cold still easily beat down the youngest afterwards. Cooler had lost consciousness by then.  
  
Frieza was a prodigy – 'But what is a prodigy that refuses to use his powers?', as their father said when Sorbet entered the room.  
  
Frieza saw his father looming above him, and he feels another painful smack on the head from his father's tail, before he told Sorbet and the others to bring them away.  
  
The young Icejin felt himself picked up by who he recognized to be Kikono while his consciousness slowly slipped, and saw Berryblue had Cooler in her hands.  
  
Then, the Icejin passed out as well.  
  


* * *

He slowly blinked his eyes open, sight adjusting to the surrounding room slowly. He felt something soft atop of him, and calmly grasped at the blanket he was wrapped in. A loud ringing sound filled his head.  
  
While his vision became less blurry slowly, his eyes focused on two shapes in front of him, a blue one and a yellow one. After a few moments, he recognized the blobs of color as people he knew – Berryblue, his caretaker, his nanny essentially, and Kikono, one of the top scientists in the Cold Empire, and a friend to the siblings.  
  
The noise began fading out and he turned his head slowly to his left, where he saw his brother hooked up to an IV, sitting up.  
  
As his vision gained focus properly, Frieza slowly sat up, looking around one of the medical stations in the palace. Cooler looked over to his younger brother, and gave a sigh of relief when he saw him awake and alive. Berryblue and Kikono seemed to ease up too.   
  
“H-How are you feeling, Prince Frieza?” Kikono asked nervously. Frieza noticed the bandages on his head and chest, tugging at them carefully. “My head hurts...” the youngest complained, pouting slightly.  
  
“You were hit on the head pretty badly. I was worried you might not wake back up,” Cooler admitted, looking over to his younger brother. “You should probably lay back down and get more rest if it still hurts.” Kikono and Berryblue nodded in agreement.  
  
Frieza looked at his brother, and his gaze fell upon the IV that led to a small tube attached to Cooler's body. Frieza laid back down carefully. “Why is there a tube in your arm?” the Icejin questioned.  
  
“Pain medication,” Cooler explained, “because of my arm. Kikono won't let me take medicine normally until he's sure I'm well enough for it.” He gave a slight eye roll, but Kikono seemed very serious about it. “We can't let you take meds until your anesthesia has worn off! I don't want you choking on a pill,” Kikono retorted.  
  
It was now that Sorbet came into the room. Frieza had since shut his eyes again, just listening to the conversation; but appearing asleep to anyone who wasn't in here just now. Sorbet noticed that Cooler was awake and sat up, and thought that Frieza was still unconscious.  
  
“His majesty wants to see his sons in the observation room.” Sorbet said coldly, seemingly not paying any mind to the fact that the two were obviously in no condition to leave the medical station.  
  
Kikono gave Sorbet a very serious stare, but Berryblue stepped in before Kikono could start another fight with Sorbet, like he did last time this sort of thing happened.  
  
“As you can see, neither of the two princes are in any condition to leave this room right now. This meeting will have to be delayed until they have recovered enough.”  
  
Frieza continued to keep his eyes shut, becoming a bit afraid when he heard Sorbet's voice. He never had any care for him or his brother, and only wanted to rise up in the ranks, to the point he had essentially become King Cold's personal aide. He was always the one who dragged Frieza off to the beatings if he wasn't already there – another reason Frieza deeply feared the man. His arrival usually meant nothing good for either Cooler or Frieza.  
  
“His majesty will not like hearing that.” Sorbet retorted indifferently, trying to demand Kikono and Berryblue hand over the kids underneath a false guise of politeness.  
  
But Berryblue stood firm. “Then he will have me to blame for that, Sorbet.” She had a confident smirk, because she knew that she was irreplaceable to the emperor, and he wouldn't punish her, even for such a thing.  
  
Sorbet scoffed, obviously annoyed at Berryblue's confident response, but didn't say anything else, turning around and leaving the room again.  
  
Kikono gave a small sigh of relief once Sorbet had left, before turning over to Berryblue, with a look of concern. “Are you sure that's alright? He will punish you,” he asked.  
  
Berryblue gave a small chuckle. “He won't,” she replied, “because he doesn't have someone else he can replace me with so easily.” She then turned her head over to the two kids. “You two rest up, Kikono will look after you for now. I'm sure his majesty will want to speak with me after Sorbet comes to him to tell him the bad news.” Before she left the room, she stopped again. “And Kikono? You better not let these two out of your sight until I'm back.”  
  
Kikono nodded and gave a short “Yes Ma'am,” before she disappeared behind the closing door. He then looked over at his two patients, and sighed. “I'm really not made for medical watch,” he complained, which earned him a small giggle from Frieza. “But you're doing a good job at it!” the youngest replied. “You patched both of us up good.” Cooler nodded in response to Frieza's words.  
  
“We ought to thank Berryblue for sticking up for us later,” Cooler said, looking over to Frieza, who sat back up in a quick motion. “I'm not sure I would've survived another of Father's 'meetings' in my current condition.”  
  
“You probably wouldn't even have gotten that far,” Kikono responded, “you would've probably fallen over or something before you even reached the observation room. Trust me, anesthesia does some serious things to the body,”  
  
Frieza giggled again. “Are we speaking from experience, Kikono?”  
  
The yellow alien quickly became embarrassed and defended himself, trying to put it off as him having seen it happen with other patients, and desperately trying to deny it was him who had experienced it first hand. This only caused Frieza to laugh more, though.  
  


* * *

It'd been about a day when Berryblue and the medics of the palace allowed Frieza and Cooler to leave the medical station.  
  
They'd barely gotten back to their room, both still somewhat injured but healing, with Cooler having a sling on his left arm, which was broken, while Frieza still had the bandage around his head from the concussion he got, when Sorbet came to inform them that their father wanted to see them immediately.  
  
Cooler tried resisting and arguing against him at first, saying they'd just gotten out of medical and still needed to recover more, but Sorbet was having none of it and essentially dragged the two to their father by their tails.   
  
None of the soldiers paid them any mind, they just watched as these two kids were clearly being brought to King Cold against their will.  
  
When they reached the room and Sorbet essentially dropped them in there, Frieza was trying really hard not to cry.  
  
Surprisingly, King Cold didn't seem enraged with them yet. But the two knew it could happen at any moment. They waited patiently for him to say something.  
  
For a minute or two, the room was silent, and Sorbet had since quietly left the three to themselves.  
  
“We are going off-world,” King Cold said, “I have business to attend to and I will keep an eye on you two, so you are coming with me. Is that understood?”  
  
The two gave a “Yes, Father.” to which King Cold smirked. “Good,” he retorted. “Now get back to your room.”  
  
There was another confirmation they had heard it, and the two left the room. They made their way back to their own, and once inside, calmly sat down together. They began discussing the situation, wondering where their father would go to with them this time.  
  
Berryblue soon entered with Kikono to check on the two, prompting Frieza to ask if they would also come. The two confirmed that, and the little group had a nice chat.  
  
Just two days after, the mothership of the Cold Force left – marking the last time the Icejin siblings would ever see the palace and Planet Cold 1.  
  


* * *

Frieza gripped his plush toy closer to his chest, dangling his legs on his bed. He was waiting for Cooler to come back, but he started getting worried. His older brother had been gone for some time now, and the younger Icejin was worried their father decided that he was “in trouble” again for something he didn't do, or something completely unreasonable.  
  
He wanted to go and check on Cooler, but he was afraid to leave his room. Sometimes King Cold would give the two of them a beating just for not being in their room when he came by. It was horrible. He had essentially forbidden the two siblings to wander around the ship without supervision.  
  
He clutched his plush, an oddly shaped creature with long ears, short nub arms and legs, a thin tail, big eyes and blue spots on the base white color. He hugged it tight, seeking comfort from it, like always.  
  
It was another few minutes until he heard the door open. He was expecting his older brother and looked up, but only saw Berryblue, causing his expression to go from excited to puzzled.  
  
She sat down next to the young prince, giving him a warm smile, like always. “How are you feeling, Frieza?” she asked.  
  
Frieza looked at her with a scared expression. “I'm worried about my big brother,” he said, “he has been gone for some time now, and I'm scared he might've gotten into trouble that Father made up on the spot again. You know? To punish him because Father's in a bad mood. Or something like that.” He looked back down at his plush toy, slightly wiggling it around, making its ears flop back- and forward, trying to cheer himself up.  
  
Berryblue gave him a pat on the back. “We could go looking for him if it makes you feel any better?” she offered. Frieza blinked, turning his head back to her, surprised. “Won't Father get mad if I'm out of my room? I don't want him to punish me...” he replied, but then he noticed Berryblue's smirk. “Not if you're supervised,” she said, winking. A smile quickly appeared on Frieza's face, and he hopped off his bed, thought not letting his plush toy go.  
  
The two left the room together to go look for Cooler. They passed through nearly all the ship, and Frieza began dreading that his first assumption was correct, and King Cold was in fact punishing Cooler right now. However, they eventually reached one of the labs on the ship, and noticed Cooler there, talking to Kikono. Frieza sighed with relief at seeing his brother unharmed, and entered the room with Berryblue.  
  
Cooler was surprised to see Frieza and Berryblue, just like Kikono.  
  
“What're you two doing here?” Kikono asked, obviously confused. Frieza quickly spoke up. “I was really worried Father was punishing you again, big bro!” he said, pouting and walking over to his brother.  
  
Cooler chuckled, smiling and picking his little brother up. “It's alright, bro, I don't get beat up every time I leave our room,” he replied casually, but Frieza wasn't happy with that answer. “You were gone for so long!” he exclaimed, crossing his arms while still holding onto his toy.  
  
“Really? I've barely been gone for 15 minutes,” Cooler replied, looking at Frieza, who blinked in surprise.  
  
“15 minutes?! It felt more like an hour or so!” he complained. “But... it doesn't matter. I'm just glad you're okay,”  
  
Berryblue interrupted the two siblings' chatter. “I believe we should leave Kikono to his work and make our way back to your room, boys.”  
  
Frieza groaned. “I don't want to go back to our room yet,” he grumbled, giving his best attempt at puppy eyes, causing Cooler to giggle. “Can we take a detour, pleeeeeease?”  
  
Berryblue chuckled. “We can take the longer route back to your chamber,” she replied, and the group said goodbye to Kikono, leaving to go back to the room of the two Icejin siblings.

* * *

Frieza stared down at the plush toy he was holding in his hands – it had some patches here and there, had one of its eyes replaced with a button. Father would've called it broken, but Frieza refused to think that.  
  
It was one of the few personal things Frieza had snuck on board back then. The toy always provided him with comfort, and it reminded him of the few happy times he's had at their old home, with Berryblue, Kikono, even the Ginyu force and the Armored Squadron. It was one of the few things he himself **wanted** to remember.  
  
He made the ears flop, like he always did in the past, smiling at them. He hugged the plush tightly, feeling comforted. It was just another flashback of the past. It wasn't real.  
  
Cooler and Icequ were sleeping quietly, and Frieza didn't want to wake up either of them when he woke up in a cold sweat from another nightmare. The trio had barely gotten sleep the past few days after another close call with Cold Empire soldiers. This is the first place they've felt safe enough in to not have to sleep in shifts.  
  
Frieza lay back down, shuffling back under his blanket and closing his eyes, hoping for better dreams this time.  


* * *

During the next day, the trio was out hunting again, Frieza catching some fish along a shoreline while Cooler and Icequ collected some fruits not far away.  
  
Frieza heard a rustling sound in the bushes nearby, and called out for Cooler and Icequ, thinking that it was one of them.  
  
But then a towering figure came out. Frieza, realizing this was neither his brother nor their friend, screamed out their names again, this time with a sense of urgency.  
  
He quickly tried to trap his attackers with his psychic abilities, but was hit by a tranquilizer dart which quickly knocked him out, causing him to fall to the floor, unable to move.  
  
Cooler and Icequ arrived at the scene just seconds later, where they see a tall, red figure picking up Frieza, who was now captured in a net and had a tranquilizer dart sticking out of his neck.  
  
The tall figure smirked at them.  
  
“Let him go!” Cooler shouted, charging at the man to attack. The red man kicked Cooler in the stomach with his knee, before knocking him down with his elbow. Icequ followed on the attack immediately, firing a blast at the man, but he simply took it, still grinning confidently. Icequ tried attacking just like Cooler, and managed to dodge the enemy's attacks for a few minutes, though not landing many hits himself. Cooler had gotten back up by then, trying to fire a beam at the guy, but he dodged the attack, swatting the Icejin away, before knocking down Icequ too.  
  
Cooler got up again, trying to attack the man once again, but then feeling a piercing pain in his back.  
  
The man's horns had managed to pierce into Cooler, causing him to scream in pain. He tried to keep going, tried to attack the figure again, but the struggle made the wound hurt that much more.  
  
Icequ sensed what happened with his tail, and felt as Cooler was thrown down on the ground next to him, unable to move. Icequ tried shooting another blast at the guy, but he simply dodged it and knocked the Icejin down, shooting a tranquilizer dart at him too.  
  
Icequ was beginning to slip.  
  
“That one was planned for the other kid. Doesn't matter. I'll get him later. I should bring this runt home to his daddy for now.”  
  
With that, the red figure walked off with Frieza, tranquilized and in a net. Cooler tried to stand, shouting for his brother, but quickly collapsing again under the unbearable pain.  
  
Icequ removed the dart from his arm, trying to get back up, able to stand, but still wonky. He quickly searched for the man and Frieza, but even going after them in the direction he last sensed them in came up empty. The man had left the planet with Frieza since.  
  
Icequ rushed to help Cooler up. “Hang in there,” he said calmly, picking him up over his shoulder and heading back to the ship as quickly as he could.  
  
Cooler cried out Frieza's name a few more times, hopeful that he might've managed to escape and was coming back to them.  
  
But there was no answers.  
  
Cooler began sobbing.  


* * *

Once they managed to get back to their spacecraft, Icequ immediately began patching up Cooler's wounds, using the latter's descriptions to figure out the exact locations of the wounds without accidentally touching them.  
  
Cooler refused to even think about resting until his injuries healed. He immediately set a course for King Cold's mothership.  
  
“I'm getting my little brother back, whether he likes it or not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those curious, the red figure is Shisami, who appeared Resurrection F.


	8. Rescue

Frieza slowly blinked his eyes open. He felt pretty dazed and weak – he tried sitting up, but quickly slid back down onto the... bed?  
  
The Icejin began gripping at the surface below him. It was a bed – not just some blankets he was wrapped up in, like it had been for the past years.  
  
It was wrong. Panic began setting in, and his eyes darted around the room to try and figure out where he was. His breathing sped up, his hands became shaky.  
  
Memories flooded back to him.  
  
Everything was so familiar, and he recognized where he was. He remembered what happened before he blacked out. Someone shot him with a dart. Then he fell asleep.  
  
Despite not being in the condition to walk yet, Frieza slid himself off the bed, stumbling towards the door, falling to his knees just a few steps away from it.  
  
He had to get out, he had to leave, he would be hurt the longer he was here-  
  
Frieza got back up, unsteadily making his way to the door, trying to open it from the inside.  
  
No luck.  
  
He tried again and again, beginning to pound on the door, begging anyone who could hear him to let him go, screaming, crying.  
  
But it just remained silent. No one paid attention to his woes and pleas. It was as if there was no one there, but Frieza knew their father would never leave one of them unguarded after what happened 7 years ago. He was a calculative man, and he would definitely take into account that Frieza would no doubt try to run off again.  
  
Frieza even tried firing a blast at the door, but nothing came out. He was frustrated with that. Despite his training with his brother and Icequ, he was still too weak to fend for himself in such a situation.  
  
Upset, the young Icejin moved back to the bed he had been on before, beginning to cry, burying his face in the pillow.  
  
He was scared, alone. Nobody was here to help him. He only had himself.  
  


* * *

The spacecraft was on course for King Cold's ship, soon approaching it.  
  
“Do you even have an idea where we can get in?” Icequ asked, trying to form a plan with Cooler on how to bail Frieza out.  
  
“There's a couple of areas for ships to land, but I highly doubt any of them will be open for us. We could go for the dangerous option and crash into the ship with ours to create an entrance. Or... we could try breaching the hull from outside. We can breathe in space, so that problem is out of the way. Whatever we do, it will have its dangers anyways.”  
  
Icequ nodded. “Once we're inside, we probably wont be able to leave with our own ship again, unless we manage to somehow sneak in with other ships landing in the hangars. Whatever we need from here, we should probably take with us. If we need to go for a different one, then we at least have what we need,”  
  
Cooler hummed in agreement. “Theres not much from here we need anyways. In case we do manage to come inside from the hangars, we can hide ourselves at least for a short moment with the cloaks and try to sneak a bit further into the mothership.”  
  
“There's a few people in the ship who might be willing to help us out if we ran into them, like Kikono, a friend of ours, or Berryblue – she was our nanny until we ran away.”  
  
Cooler looked to the pathway their ship was taking, to see how long it would be until they reach the mothership. Less than a day.  
  
He curled his hands, which were resting on his knees, into fists. “If Father hurt Frieza in any way, I swear I'll...” He didn't finish the sentence, huffing.  
  
“Our main objective is to get Frieza out. Once he's safe, we can still deal with your father, but Frieza should be our priority for now.”  
  
Cooler sighed, nodding. “Yes, you're right. I can't let my anger with Father get the better of me yet.”  
  


* * *

Frieza was sitting in front of the door with his back leaned against it, holding one of his old stuffed toys – one of those he had to leave behind.  
  
Nothing had really changed since the two left. Their room looked exactly the same. Nothing had been moved, and it was clean as ever.  
  
Frieza looked down at the toy, which reminded him of the lizards he had become friends with back then on K'Sauri. He thought about his brother, and pulled the toy closer to his chest, beginning to cry to himself, believing he would never be able to leave again. He thought he will be brainwashed to do everything his father wanted him to, and he would become cruel and heartless, just like him.  
  
It was a few minutes after he started crying that a lone voice from the other side of the door spoke up.  
  
“...Are you okay..?” a female voice calmly asked. It caught Frieza's attention immediately – he hadn't spoken to anyone for over a day now, as nobody seemed to be allowed to talk to him, and his father hadn't shown his face yet.  
  
“No... I miss my brother-” Frieza sobbed, trying to wipe away the tears from his eyes, but more just kept on coming. “I don't want to be here anymore.”  
  
“I'm sorry to hear that,” the voice retorted. It was quiet for a few moments, and Frieza thought his guard had given up on the conversation already. But then...  
  
“What's your name, kiddo?”  
  
“F-Frieza... Didn't they tell you you were guarding the kid of the Emperor?” Frieza inquired, surprised.  
  
“Frieza, huh? My name's Sabi.” the voice answered. “And no, they didn't. They just told me I'd be stationed here for a few hours due to a sudden injury from the guy who was supposed to do it before.”  
  
The Icejin was beginning to cry less. “Where do you come from?” he asked, trying to keep the conversation going.  
  
Sabi seemed surprised by the question. “I'm from Planet Vegeta,” she replied, “but my home was destroyed a year ago due to an asteroid collision. I wasn't home during the time, I was stationed on a different planet.”  
  
Frieza's heart sank when he heard her mention Planet Vegeta, knowing exactly its fate. He also wasn't surprised to hear that she, and likely any other Saiyan still alive in the Empire was lied to about the real cause of Planet Vegeta's destruction.  
  
“I'm sorry to hear that...” Frieza muttered, not sure if he should tell her that his father was responsible for the likely deaths of her family or not.  
  
Sabi stayed quiet for a minute, before asking Frieza something. “What's your father like? I've never met him in person. And why does he keep you in this room with guards in front of it?”  
  
Frieza debated for a few moments what to tell her.  
  
“My father's a horrible man. He hurt me and my older brother nearly daily, and was always upset with us over something. Or we had to do everything exactly as he said.”  
  
Sabi didn't respond.  
  
“Seven years ago, my older brother and I ran away, and we lived our lives as drifters on the run since then. But Father kept sending his men to capture us whenever a trail of us came up. Someone managed to catch me just recently, and brought me back here. Father knows I don't want to be here, knows that I don't want to be abused anymore, and that I would run away if he didn't make sure it would be impossible for me. That's why I'm locked in this room...”  
  
It was silent. Frieza thought that his conversation partner didn't believe him, and that she would ignore him. Something like that.  
  
A whisper came from the other side of the door. “I'll open the door for you.”  
  
Frieza gasped in surprise. He didn't expect someone to actually listen to him.  
  
“You clearly don't want to be here, and your brother's out there searching for you. Nobody is nearby, so you might be able to sneak off shi-”  
  
A loud crash sound followed by blaring alarms interrupted the Saiyan.  
  
“Hull Breach in Sectors C and D!” it toned over the intercom.  
  
The door opened, and Frieza saw Sabi's hand stretched out to help him up. “Come on, quick! Let's get you out while they're distracted!”  
  
Frieza nodded, and quickly got up, taking Sabi's hand.  
  
The two quickly rushed down the hallway, and at first, nobody noticed that Sabi was running away with Frieza, because everyone was too busy handling the emergency – but then one of the soldiers called out for them to stop where they were; the pair kept on running though, dodging their opposers.  
  


* * *

Cooler and Icequ had decided that crashing into the mothership was the best plan – it would buy them some extra time because the soldiers would need to set up a barrier before they could efficiently chase after them.  
  
Additionally, none of them were a real challenge anyways, as the duo could knock out most of them with one attack anyways – especially Cooler, who only really feared the Ginyu Force and the other Elite Soldiers at this point, like Zarbon and Dodoria.  
  
A second ship had crashed into the mothership just a minute after they did it – Cooler and Icequ were confused who this could've been and what their intent was, but the two had no time to think about this sort of thing right now.  
  
Cooler didn't remember much of the ship layout anymore – it had been seven years since they were last here.  
  
They hurried through the hallways, knocking out soldiers that decided to stand in their way, with Cooler slowly remembering some directions. He figured that their father would keep Frieza in their old room.  
  


* * *

Frieza and Sabi were nearly at one of the hangars – they managed to knock down the few soldiers that stood in their way, but most of them were busy with the breach and intruders.  
  
“It has to be my brother and my friend,” Frieza said as they were running down another hallway, “they probably came all this way to get me- we have to find them!”  
  
“We should get to the hangar for now,” Sabi panted, “we can look for the other two later, but we need to secure a ship for now – if they crashed their ship to cause a hull breach, we need a ship to get out--”  
  
At an intersection, Sabi and Frieza suddenly stood across from Cooler and Icequ. The hangar area was not far from here.  
  
Cooler glared at Sabi. “Let my brother go,” he said, seeming quite ticked off with the amount of guards that had been in their way so far.  
  
Frieza quickly stepped in. “I-It's alright, big bro! She helped me escape from my room, but I think we should save explanations for later!”  
  
Cooler's posture softened, and he nodded. He then turned his gaze to Sabi again. “You know where the hangars are, right?” Sabi nodded. “There's one not far from here, but the guards probably figured out we're trying to run away and will have tried to barricade it-” “No matter, we'll just force our way through them.”  
  
With that, the group followed Sabi to where the closest hangar was located.  
  
They fought through another group of soldiers who were trying to stop them, before seeing five of them surrounding three figures who seemed afraid.  
  
Sabi acted quick and knocked two down with a blast, smacking another one into a wall while Cooler and Icequ took care of the last two. The group then turned to the trio, which consisted of a humanoid who looked just like a Saiyan, other than the fact he was missing a tail, as well as two much younger Icejin – even younger than Frieza.  
  
“Are you guys alright? What are you doing here?” Sabi asked, looking the trio up and down.  
  
“W-We're trying to get out of here!” the oldest of the trio said, and it seemed like he wanted to continue, but another swarm of soldiers quickly approached them.  
  
“Alright, we can discuss the rest later! Just come with us!” Cooler answered, and the group quickly began running to the hangar before the soldiers managed to corner them. They knocked out the surprisingly few guards of the hangar, and quickly entered one of the ships, managing to open the hangar doors and flying off while the ship was still in disarray. Just moments before they flew away, Frieza noticed Dodoria and Zarbon had arrived at the hangar and fired at the ship, but Cooler managed to outmaneouver them.  
  
The group gave a sigh of relief when they had managed to get away and they saw they had no pursuers.  
  
Frieza plopped to the floor, still holding onto his plush. “That was close,” he murmured, gaining mutters of agreement.  
  
Cooler set the ship to auto-pilot to another planet, turning to the rest of the group, who were sitting in the ship in a circle.   
  
“I think introductions are in order, now that we're safe for now,” Frieza said, smiling, sounding cheerful. “I'm Frieza, and that's my brother Cooler,” he looked over to his older brother, “we're King Cold's sons, but we ran away from home because our father was cruel to us.” Cooler nodded in agreement to that statement.  
  
Sabi spoke up next. “The name's Sabi, I'm a Saiyan who was off-world when the asteroid collission with Planet Vegeta happened.” Cooler gave Frieza a look, but the latter shook his head, to signal “later”.  
  
Then, Icequ introduced himself. “I'm Icequ. I ran into Frieza and Cooler when they basically crashlanded in my village, and decided to go with them.”  
  
After a moment of silence, the boy with the ponytail spoke up. “M-My name is Leekus. I'm also a Saiyan, but I wasn't on Planet Vegeta either.” he stammered, “Thank you for helping us. I don't think we would've made it off that ship without you guys.” He then looked over at the two Icejin next to him. “Oh, and those are Choi and Pina, my younger brothers.”  
  
Pretty much the whole group, but especially Sabi was very surprised by that. “Your younger brothers?” she inquired.  
  
“Yes. Step brothers.” Leekus looked over to her, blinking.  
  
Before Sabi could say something else, Frieza butted in. “Hey, you said you're a Saiyan, but you don't have a tail,” he asked, “why's that?”  
  
Leekus looked at the ground, and Frieza understood nearly immediately that the guy wasn't comfortable talking about whatever happened. He immediately apologized for asking, but Leekus tried putting on a brave face, saying that it was alright.  
  
After a moment of silence, Cooler spoke up. “Do any of you guys have somewhere you want us to drop you off? Frieza and I will still be wanted, so sticking with us would be dangerous, and I wouldn't want to put you in danger unnecessarily.” He looked between Sabi, Leekus and his two siblings.  
  
Sabi spoke up first again. “I mean, I don't exactly have a place to go – considering Planet Vegeta doesn't exist anymore and I was stationed on Cold's ship since then. Besides, I'm pretty sure they're gonna want to kill me or something too – I mean, I was the one who let your little brother out of his 'cell'. I'm pretty sure your dad will want my head after that stunt.” She scratched the back of her head. “So basically, I think it's best I'd stick with you guys, if you want me around, of course.”  
  
Cooler, Frieza and Icequ shared a look amongst themselves, before nodding, agreeing to take her along. “The more, the merrier, Ginyu always said,” Frieza smiled.  
  
They turned to look at Leekus and his two brothers, the latter of which seemed quite nervous and shy. Their older brother was the one to speak up.  
  
“I-I don't exactly have a-anywhere to go either...” he said, looking at the ground. “Both my parents are d-dead, and even if Planet Vegeta still existed, I--we wouldn't be welcome there. My brothers w-were taken from me when my parents were k-killed, and my only goal was to get them back. I haven't e-exactly planned for what would happen after that.” He looked over at his two brothers, who were clinging to their older brother. “I-I think it would be safest for us three to j-join you as well, if you're alright with that. W-We'll pull our weight too.”  
  
Frieza grinned, welcoming the four newcomers aboard. The two Cold brothers began explaining how they had been living for the past years, their routine, et cetera. The newcomers listened closely, preparing themselves for how things would work out from here, while the ship flew to a far away planet.


End file.
